We Walk the Banks of the River Acheron
by Silent Watchman
Summary: The diclonius have all but destroyed their human predecessors, but at what cost. This is going to be a long one. It is now complete. Rated for violence, blood, and some language.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: Elfen Lied is a trademark of Lynn Okamoto. Many of the ideas here are mine, but the concept and most of the characters are his.

Acknowledgments: This work has been inspired heavily by The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, by The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, by The Terminator trilogy, and of course by Elfen Lied. Without them I could not have found the inspiration for this.

I would also like to thank ElfenLied619 for beta-reading my story and helping me to flesh things out.

We Walk the Banks of the River Acheron

_Prologue_

Yuka frowned as she tried the sliding glass door again. There was dust building up in the runners and she had to wiggle it several times before it closed properly. "Geez, this is happening because you haven't cleaned for a long time," she called into the bedroom where Kohta was sitting by himself. "Hurry up and do it, otherwise you won't be having lunch!"

"Geez, I know!" Kohta shouted back, barely keeping the anger from his voice. How could Yuka be so selfish and insensitive at a time like this? He sat on the floor, looking at the shell that Nyu had given him that first night he and Yuka had brought her to the Inn. In the background his music box was open and plying _Lilium_, that solemn little tune that had brought him and Lucy together those many years ago.

It was hard to accept that his childhood friend had killed his father and Kanae all those years ago, but Kohta could not bring himself to hate Lucy, no matter how hard he tried. He had told her that he couldn't forgive her; hell he knew that he _shouldn't_ forgive her. She had killed all those soldiers and that woman scientist right in front of him. Time had not changed her. The monster that had ruined his childhood was still very much awake.

And yet, Kohta did not feel any hate toward her. She had attempted a clumsy apology, and she said she was sorry for all the sad memories she caused; but she had never actually apologized for killing Dad and Kanae. Kohta knew he shouldn't forgive Lucy, yet he wanted nothing more right now than to see her face, to wipe away those tears that had fallen when they parted, to…to tell her that he forgave her.

Kohta closed his eyes and squeezed back the tears. Damn it, why did his heart and his head have to send him such conflicting messages?

"What's the matter?"

Kohta turned to see Yuka standing in his doorway. He hadn't even heard her come is, so lost was he in his own thoughts. "Oh, nothing," he lied.

Yuka turned and left without saying a word. She could tell that Nyu running off, probably for good, was eating Kohta up inside. He needed time to figure out things for himself

-:-:-

Yuka did not think she could really bring herself to like Nyu. She was so jealous of Kohta's attention to her, but what Mayu had said that night, about Kohta trying to help those in need to atone for mistreating Kanae right before she died, had really opened up Yuka's eyes. And now, in spite of herself, she missed the little scamp running around; eager to please everyone, trying so hard to be helpful, playing her little tricks.

Yuka finished setting the fourth place at the table, but it didn't look right. She had grown so accustomed to serving five that four seemed too few. And besides, in the off chance that Nyu returned home she would want to eat as well. Yuka quickly got another bowl and set of chopsticks and set them out. They would probably go unused, but maybe the gesture would cheer Kohta up.

Kohta, sitting in a chair near the doorway leading to the back common area, noticed immediately. "Yuka?"

"Hmm?" Yuka grunted under hear breath.

"You have one extra bowl out."

Yuka gave Kohta a rare smile. "She wanted to eat too."

Kohta smiled in spite of himself. He remembered that first meal of rice balls that Nyu had made such a mess of. "Yeah, that's right."

It was another fifteen minutes before Nana and Mayu had lunch ready. They quickly set the steaming bowl of soumen noodles in the table and took their places.

"Thanks for the food!"

Nana immediately dished some noodles into her bowl and slurped them down. A look of sheer joy spread across her face. "This is tasty!"

Yuka found the ecstasy on Nana's face a little odd. "Oh, is this your first time eating soumen noodles?"

"Yeah, I missed the chance to eat it before, so…" It was the wrong thing for Nana to say. The reason that she missed the chance that night came rushing back; the fight on the bridge, Papa saving her…realizing that he wasn't really Papa…seeing him get blown up by one of his fellow scientists. "Even though there are so many wonderful things…so many…" Nana tried to stop the tears, but they came despite her best efforts. She sobbed, just a little.

"Nana?" asked Mayu.

Nana immediately and stubbornly fought down her emotions. The others would ask questions and they must never know why she was crying. "I'm… I'm sorry! Hey, let's eat! Come on now!" she reached out and began serving herself some more noodles. It was considered bad luck to serve ones self at the table in Japan, but no one noticed or cared.

Yuka smiled at Nana's hearty appetite. She really did eat a lot for being so small. "You won't be able to grow big unless you eat a lot," she joked, "so…"

In the front yard between the main doors and the gate, Wanta began barking. Trough the large window, a figure could clearly be seen waiting on the other side of the thick, dirty glass panes. "Oh? I wonder if we have a guest," said Yuka.

"Ill go check," said Kohta, getting up from his seat. He walked down the hall past that old grandfather clock that Nyu had enjoyed messing with. He put his shoes on and hesitated a moment before going to open the gate. It was the way that Wanta was barking; not an alarm bark, but a happy greeting bark, like he expected an old friend to be waiting on the other side of the gate. Wanta jumped forward on his leash, knocked himself over, and resumed his happy yipping.

As Kohta stepped off the wooden steps onto the dirt path to the gate, a sound behind him caused him to stop. It was the grandfather clock, chiming the stroke of noon.

"Huh?" grunted Kohta in confusion. "It's working." He listened to the chime for a moment before realizing why he was there in the first place. "Sorry," he called out. "I'm coming, I'm coming!"

In the dining room Mayu and Yuka looked curiously at Nana as she dropped her chopsticks onto the table, an expression between horror and joy on her face. She had felt that presence almost as soon as Kohta stood up and there was no mistaking it. "It's her," she whispered.

Kohta slid the gate open, ready to dismiss whoever it was as politely as possible. "I'm sorry but, the Maple Inn isn't currently open for business, so I'm afraid you'll have to…" Kohta stopped in mid sentence as he saw who it was. Dried blood caked one side of her face and matted her hair. Her other horn was missing, but there was no mistaking that face that looked at him now; that haunted face that was filled with so much pain and sorrow, yet looked so strangely at peace.

"Kohta…"

**12 Years Later…**

Jim Anderson waved his brother Thomas back as he peered through the night gloom. "Turn that light off!" he hissed, "they'll see us and we're dead if they do." Thomas switched their kerosene lantern of and crawled back to the shattered store front window, careful to avoid the broken glass. They waited in the shadows of a crumbling building, one of many in this part of Salt Lake City.

When the diclonius had struck quite a few of the nearby major cities, Las Vegas, Denver, Boise, Tucson…they had gotten hit pretty hard, but for some reason Salt Lake had been spared. Jack figured it had to be the fact that there were so many farms in central Utah, or maybe that two major highways met there as well and the diclonius could not risk damaging such a valuable resource; but either way, they had a better chance of finding supplies in the ruins here than anywhere else.

It did not come without a price though. A hive of diclonius had settled into what was left of Denver and they made regular sweeps of the ruins of the nearby cities, looking for the few human survivors who carried on, and raiding whatever supplies those survivors had gathered.

Jim gripped the stock of his rifle even tighter. He looked sideways at his brother. "Keep a good hand on Wyatt's collar, and don't let him bark."

Thomas adjusted his grip on the collar of the large German shepherd dog that crouched in the ruins with them. The dog could sense the anxiety of his masters, and he could smell the strangers approaching, but he knew better than to bark. He growled softly and tensed up, ready to spring into action at his master's command.

"I think I can see them," whispered Jim. In the whitish light provided by the moon reflecting off the fallen snow he could clearly see four figures picking their way through the burnt husks of automobiles and rubble from torn down buildings that choked the streets. The tallest was missing a leg and hobbling along on a crutch, two were adult women, and one was clearly a little girl. "It looks like there are only four of them, and at least one is a man."

"Then that means they're Normal's," Thomas whispered. "If it were a raiding party there'd be hundreds of the Horned Ones."

"You're right," agreed Jim. "I'm willing to bet that they're just a small group of lost nomads." He handed his rifle to Thomas. "I'm going to go see what they want; see if they're friendly or not. If they try anything funny, release the dog."

Jim cautiously took the lantern and climbed out of the shattered window. "Hello?" he called out. "We know you're out there, so don't try anything funny. I'm going to turn a lantern on, and you just step into the light nice and slow." Jim turned the lantern on and set it on the roof of a car. Within moments, the small band of nomads came into the light where he could see them.

They all looked Japanese. The man, obviously the leader, had his hair and beard growing long. His left leg was missing from the knee down and he had a bandage wrapped about his head that covered his left eye. Jack would have put his age at between twenty five and thirty (though he had a hard time telling with Asians). He also traveled with two Normal's, a young woman who looked slightly younger than him, and a little girl who couldn't have been more than eleven. But he also had a diclonius with him; she looked like she had to be in her mid thirties. He had never seen a diclonius that looked any older than eighteen since they started appearing.

"Look," the one-legged leader said in heavily accented English. "We have no valuables on us. The only things we have are some meager supplies, and if you try to take those, we will be forced to defend ourselves!"

"It's ok, friend," said Jim, "We're not robbers." He whistled twice into the night. "It's alright! They're not Savages or Horned Ones!"

Lanterns flared to life from two more buildings. The rest of the Anderson family crawled out of their hiding places as well as the Douglas family. All told, there were ten of them. More lanterns were lit as the two families anxiously gathered to see the newcomers.

"My name is James Anderson," Jim said as he extended his hand. "You can call me Jim though."

"My name is Kohta," Kohta replied as he shook Jim's hand. "That's Mayu, Nana, and my daughter Kanae."

Jim shook hands all around. He regarded Nana suspiciously. "You travel with a diclonius? I'm not sure if I want to put my family at risk of being attacked or rounded up."

"Nana is not part of any of the hives," said Kohta. "She can't explain why the hive minds cast her and another diclonius I knew out, but I have my theories."

"I don't care what your theories are," growled Thomas as he stepped into the lantern light to join his brother. He shouldered the rifle and leveled it right at Nana's head. "Where are my daughters, Horned One?"

Nana just looked at the rifle pointed squarely at her face. She cocked her head to one side and smiled slightly. "That rifle isn't powerful enough to hurt me. I can block bullets that small quite easily." She continued to stare at Thomas for a few more moments. "Are you going to shoot me?"

"No one is shooting anyone," said Jim as he stepped over to Thomas and pointed the rifle at the ground, "Because killing a scout from the hive will bring the rest of them down upon us like the wrath of God." Jim placed himself firmly between Thomas and Nana. He curled his lip in disgust as he addressed Kohta. "You and your human friend, and your daughter may stay with us, but the diclonius has to leave. We're not going to shoot her, but I'm sure that the elements will take care of her before she makes it back to Denver."

"I don't see why I have to leave," whimpered Nana. "My own kind casts me out as well as the humans…am I not going to be welcome anywhere I go? Nana never does anything bad! I have protected my human family ever since they took me in, and I've never hurt any humans either so I don't see why I have too..!"

"Its ok, Nana, I'll handle this," said Kohta. He turned and looked Jim straight in the eye. "I can personally vouch for Nana. She has saved the lives of many humans in her time and she is not bound by the will of any of the hive minds. If she leaves, we leave with her. Are you really going to drive us out into the winter…especially as young as my daughter is?"

Jim stared hard at Kanae for a moment. She had the thin, pinched look of someone who was not eating well and she shivered uncontrollably under her thin, threadbare, woefully inadequate coat. It was only moments before pity overruled caution. "If your Horned One try's anything funny, if I get one eerie feeling, if one hair stands up on the back of my neck…I'll kill her." He continued to glare daggers at Nana for a moment before his expression softened. "Where are you from Kohta? You look like you've been traveling for quite a while."

Kohta leaned heavily on his crutch and sighed. "We've been following the highways north since the spring. My family settled in Las Angeles from Japan, but we had to relocate up here when it got hit."

Thomas edged his way closer. "My sister-in-law was living in LA. Is there any chance that she survived?"

Kohta shook his head. "The diclonius hive that rose up there pulled down most of the buildings and bombed it once they figured out how to work the aircraft from a nearby Air Force base. We were lucky, two of the diclonius I was traveling with felt the uprising and we were in the process of escaping when they struck. We didn't all get out though. My…my wife and a close friend died there." Tears began to run out of Kohta's one good eye. "And my other daughter was absorbed into the hive."

Jim nodded in sympathy. "My brother Thomas and his wife Erica, they had two daughters; both diclonius who tried to kill them. They don't know what became of them either. Why don't you follow us back to our shelter? We'll give you a place to stay tonight and we'll see what happens from there."

"Lead the way," said Kohta.

-:-:-

The shelter that was being used consisted of a cleared out basement in a nearby department store. They had salvaged quite a bit of useful gear; sleeping bags, propane stoves, cookware, and quite a few items that made the place seem "homier" than Kohta had experienced in months. A meal was being made from what looked like a large supply of canned goods and a couple of animals Kohta did not recognize were being roasted over open fires in makeshift stoves.

"Where did you get all this?" Kohta asked as Mayu, Nana and Kanae came over to sit next to him. "It seems you got lucky in picking this area to hide from the diclonius hives."

Jim shrugged. "This seemed like the natural place to try to survive. Outdoor recreation used to be a big hobby here, and the Mormons advocated emergency food storage just in case something like this happened, so most of the homes had the basic necessities tucked away in their basements. Game is plentiful here; raccoons, rabbits, deer, feral cats, so we don't want for meat. We didn't stumble on this area though, we came here on purpose. It wasn't easy; we came up from Huston Texas, and got assailed by a band of Savages." He noted the confusion on Kohta and Mayu's faces. "Anarchist humans who live in groups less structured than a pack of flipping wolves; doing whatever the hell they feel like since there are no laws to enforce anymore. There were thirty of us then; they killed most of our group and took the women for their own physical satisfaction and the children to serve as slaves. The few of us left here were the lucky ones."

Nana made her way over to the heater where everyone was gathered and sat down with the rest of her family. She noted the German shepherd and gave the large dog a broad smile. "Wow, I've never seen a _Wanta_ that looks like this one. What's his name?"

"His name is Wyatt," replied Jim. "Is Wanta the Japanese word for dog?"

Mayu rolled her eyes. "No, the word for dog in Japanese is _inu_. Nana knows perfectly well that these animals are called dogs. She thinks she's being funny. Nana was raised in a research facility that studied diclonius, and she had never seen a dog before until we met. I had a little dog named Wanta, so she thought that's what all dogs were called."

"_Konnichiwa, Wyatt-san_," said Nana as she extended one hand to pet the German shepherd.

"Wait!" cried Jim. "Don't try to pet..!"

It was too late. Wyatt snarled and leapt forward, snapping his jaws on Nana's fingers. She gave a squeak of surprise and pulled her hand away. "He bit me!" she exclaimed. She rubbed her hand and began to cry.

Jim's wife, Judith, came over and took Nana's hand. "Here, let me see…huh? You're not bleeding?"

Nana shook her head. "I'm not hurt" she sobbed. "I just didn't expect your dog to be so mean. Most of the dog's I've ever met were friendly."

Judith patted Nana on the back reassuringly. "Well, all dog breeds are different. These dogs, German shepherds, are well known for being suspicious around strangers. Give him time; he'll warm up to you. You've got to be more careful around strange animals though."

"How is it possible that you aren't bleeding?" Jim asked, suddenly very serious.

Nana detached one of her prosthetic limbs and handed it to Jim. "My arms and legs are all like this. It's a long story."

Jim returned Nana's arm and regarded these newcomers. He wasn't sure what to make of them. "Your friend mentioned a research facility where you were raised; explain, please."

Kohta gave a tremendous yawn. "Could this possibly wait until morning? We've traveled a long way and I am very tired from the long walk. I promise, first thing tomorrow you will get all the information you want and then some."

-:-:-

It was just before dawn when Rebecca Anderson woke up. She usually woke up before everyone else and she normally went to another part of the basement to read. Today however, she was curious about these newcomers. She hadn't seen any new people in almost a year and she wanted to find out more about them. Rebecca had the impulsive nature of all sixteen year olds and had on occasion driven her parents, Jim and Judith, absolutely nuts with her antics.

She crept over to where Kohta was snoring softly. He had an old battered backpack that he was using to carry supplies and Rebecca could just make out the end of what looked like an antique wooden box. Carefully she pulled it out of Kohta's bag and held it up in the growing light to examine it more closely. It was a bit battered, but she could still see the light reflecting off a bronze plaque on the lid. The word _Lilium_ was intricately scrawled across it. Cautiously she opened it.

It was a music box. It tinkled a slow, very solemn tune that Rebecca found quite engaging. It wasn't lively, or happy, but still very pleasant to listen to. In the music box were three photos. Rebecca pulled them out to examine them. The first looked like a family photo, and it must have been taken years ago from the looks of how faded it was. There were five of them; Rebecca recognized Kohta, and was certain that the youngest girl with short black hair was Mayu, but the other human was a mystery to her. She looked about Kohta's age and had her brown hair trimmed short, almost like a boy's hair. The other two were clearly Horned Ones. Nana was recognizable, but the other, the one who looked the most solemn, was not.

The second photo looked like it had been taken on a wedding day. The brown haired woman was dressed in white, like a bride, while Mayu, Nana, and the other Horned One were clearly dressed as brides-maids.

The third photo was of Kohta and the brown haired woman. They had a girl with them who looked like a much younger Kanae, as well as an infant with two stubby horns and a thin tuft of pink hair.

Rebecca was about to return those photos when she noticed something that was hidden underneath them. Gently she picked it up and saw that it was a small seashell. The edges were a little chipped, and it was by no means perfectly shaped, but it was still a lovely shade of pink. Rebecca examined it closely, wondering why on earth Kohta would keep such a thing.

"Did you find anything interesting?"

Rebecca yelped in alarm and dropped the shell. Kohta had woken up as soon as Rebecca had opened the music box and had watched her examine its contents for the last minute. Rebecca's cry of alarm awoke the rest of the group of survivors and they scrambled over to see what the matter was.

"Geez, I'm so sorry Mister Kohta!" shrieked Rebecca as she hurried to return the shell and music box to his bag. "I didn't mean to go though your private things, but I was curious and I..!"

"Hey, calm down. There was no harm done." Kohta pulled the music box back out of his bag and propped it open. Most of the Anderson and Douglas family gathered around, curious to see what had caused the commotion.

Kohta gently held up the family photo so everyone could see it better. "This was taken almost twelve years ago, when I was still in college and living at an old inn owned by my uncle's family. That was me back then." The Kohta of twelve years ago hardly resembled the Kohta of now. His hair was still long, but not the wild unkempt mess that it was now, and he did not sport a beard in the photo. "Nana and Mayu have gotten much older, as you can see, and this was my future wife, Yuka."

"Who's that?" asked Rebecca, pointing at the last person.

Kohta lifted the shell from the music box and looked at it for several long minutes before answering. "She…was one of the most tragic people I ever knew, and also one of the bravest. She endured so much more hardship and suffering than any person should have to. But…it's also in part because of her that the diclonius have risen up and all but destroyed us."

"You're kidding!" exclaimed Jim. "You know how the Horned Ones came into power?"

"I do not have all the facts," said Kohta, "But I can guess at most of what happened since Lucy and Nana were caught in the middle of it. I haven't just witnessed our past, but I do, in a way, know the final outcome of human history."

Kohta set his crutch on the ground and sat cross legged. He looked at the shell as everyone gathered around to hear him better. "This is going to take a while to tell," He began, "But for us, the last of our kind, the story needs to be told…"


	2. New Beginings

Director Kakuzawa stood glaring out of his enormous bay windows at the ocean. Behind him, on the other side of his desk one of his agents was waiting to give him a report that had just come in and Kakuzawa was in the mood to make him wait. It had been three months since the last capture team to locate Lucy had been all found dismembered, and there had been no unusual murders or sightings since that time. It looked to Director Kakuzawa that "Pandora's Box" was going to be postponed indefinitely unless they could locate and recapture their queen, and that thought had put him in an extremely foul mood.

Kakuzawa twirled a triangular shaped piece of bone with a thin covering of skin between his fingers; the only piece of Lucy that his S.A.T. had been able to recover from the last failed capture attempt. As far as he could tell, this was the only time the subject had so much as been injured by one of his teams.

After several long minutes he turned and faced his subordinate. Kakuzawa flicked the broken horn onto his desk and stared icily at the agent. "Do you have the police reports I asked you for?" he growled.

The agent nodded nervously. "There have still been no unusual murders since the subjects injury during the last failed capture attempt. It is most likely that Lucy died away from the scene as a result of her injuries…"

Kakuzawa slammed a fist on his desk, cutting the man off. "No, she is alive!" he thundered. "We made a thorough search of the surrounding area and have been keeping an eye on the local morgues and in three months her remains have not been found! She went into hiding somewhere, and it is imperative that we find her. Without a queen, the next stage in my plans cannot be set. We need her back!"

The agent straightened up and put on a confident face, more confident than would be expected from a man facing a serious reprimand. "Begging your pardon Director, but having Lucy may no longer be necessary for the Pandora's Box project."

"What do you mean?"

"We have found another queen, sir. Would you like to see her?"

…

Kakuzawa stood behind the shatterproof observation windows that allowed him to see into the cell where Lucy had been kept. Repairs had been made to the restraint table that she had destroyed and now doctors were in the process of placing a young woman into a straight jacket that would hang suspended from the upright frame. Her age looked to be in her late teens to early twenties, and she was a bit taller than Lucy. Oddly, her hair was a shade of dark brown rather than pink. As for her face…take away the differences in height and hair color and that would have been Lucy's face on this young woman.

"How was this new queen located?" asked Director Kakauzawa. It seemed odd to him that the queen would offer no resistance to the doctors who were still fitting her with the same type of neural restraint helmet that was used on Lucy and would disable her vectors.

"We've been keeping our eyes on maternity wards in the area where we first captured Lucy," the agent replied. He stepped over to a computer console to bring up further details on the new file being made for her. "We found a diclonius infant during one of our last sweeps. When we went to confront the parent about the possibilities of what her child might do, we discovered our queen. Her…um…her pubic hair is pink rather than black so we are assuming that she dyed her hair to blend in with society. We also assume that she normally kept her horns covered, but the hospital staff had not replaced whatever covering she may have used. We have dubbed her Persephone."

Kakuzawa allowed himself a small chuckle at the poetic irony. "The captive wife of Hades compelled to stay in the underworld for eating pomegranate seeds. Do you know who the father of her child is?"

"She would not say, sir."

"And her infant?"

"We are not certain as the status of her infant. When she ages and her vectors develop we should be able to get a better idea of how she will turn out. For now, the queen's child is an effective tool to ensure her cooperation."

"What of her parents?"

"She says that she was abandoned as an infant and that she was raised by a foster family. We're back-checking to confirm this."

Kakuzawa gave a broad tight-lipped smile. "I want full tests run on her immediately: brain tissue samples, spinal fluid samples, and harvest some of her eggs for DNA and stem cell tests. Its time we began crafting Pandora's Box, and this time we will have no mistakes. I will be by later to reprogram the computer systems that control her restraints so that only I have access to them."

Kakuzawa turned and marched out of the observation room. Before leaving he turned to face his agent. "Send Arakawa to my office. I have a new assignment for her."

"Yes sir. What about Lucy?"

Kakuzawa paused and rubbed his chin as he thought about what to do with the escaped queen. "With construction on Pandora's Box about to begin, and a new queen to provide us with the raw materials we need to make the Box, Lucy is no longer needed. In fact, she may be of more use to us on the outside, infecting people and speeding up the process of human evolution that much faster. Call off all searches for her. Its time our old queen was given the chance to fulfill the calling that nature has given her."

With that, Kakuzawa turned and left the observation room.

…

Arakawa sat in her tiny room flipping through the registry books from the university where she so recently worked. She would have preferred to just lie down and sleep on the small cot that had been provided, but the little red light flashing on the camera that had been installed in her room told her that she was being monitored. But oh, was she bored. She had already found the picture of that boy who had seen Professor Kakuzawa's butchered corpse, and she had torn it to pieces and flushed it down the toilet the first chance she had gotten. Fear compelled her to keep up the illusion of searching for the boy. Director Kakuzawa had already shot her once just to gain her cooperation, and she had no desire to see what would happen if he got really angry.

Arakawa looked up as the door to her little room was unlocked. They kept her locked up in her little room for days on end and Arakawa's cabin fever was beginning to develop into full blown claustrophobia. They brought her meals twice a day, and she had access to a toilet, but there was no shower and Arakawa was certain that her skin would never stop itching.

The door to her "cell" opened and two of Kakuzawa's guards entered. "The Director has requested that you be brought to his office for reassignment," one guard declared "But first," the agent sniffed once and wrinkled his nose, "He has ordered that you be cleaned up."

Arakawa groaned and immediately rose to her feet. "Finally, I haven't had a bath in weeks." As Arakawa exited her little room, flanked by the two armed guards, she noticed several lab assistants enter her room and begin removing the collage picture directories. Arakawa breathed a secret sigh of relief; she was going to go crazy if she had to keep looking through those blasted books.

…

'Cleanup' was not what Arakawa had in mind. Instead of being able to luxuriate in a nice hot bath, she was taken to a holding cell and ordered to strip. One guard stood by, leering at her as he held her clothes, while the other sprayed her off with lukewarm soapy water from a high pressure hose and used several huge high velocity fans aimed in the holding cell to dry her off. Before they allowed her to dress they threw a scoopful of delousing powder on her that caused her skin and eyes to burn like hell. The guards could not help but have a chuckle at Arakawa's expense. With her hair an uncombed damp mess and her clothes wrinkled from several days wear she looked every bit as miserable and disheveled as a half drowned rat that had washed ashore. She also looked incredibly nervous as she was marched into Kakuzawa's office.

Kakuzawa stood gazing out of his window with his hands clasped behind his back. As soon as Arakawa entered his cavernous office the guards stepped out of the room and closed the doors behind them. Arakawa shrank against the doors as her mind began to conjure horrible ideas about why she was called here. Her apprehension grew worse and worse with each passing moment of silence.

"Come closer to my desk," Kakuzawa called out after what seemed like an eternity. "I do not intend to shout across the room."

Arakawa swallowed nervously and made her way across the office. She stood trembling behind Kakuzawa's desk for several long moments before getting the courage to speak. "I'm sorry I haven't found that boy yet, but I only met him that once and there is a lot of directories to go through…"

"He no longer matters," said Kakuzawa, cutting her off. He turned around and Arakawa was surprised to see that he looked to be in an extremely good mood. "The information he could have offered us is no longer relevant. However, that does not answer the question of what to do with you. You were working with my son on extracting the Diclonius virus. How close were you to extraction and replication?"

Arakawa straightened up. She knew she had something useful to offer the Director and decided to take the chance to try and improve her situation. "We could have extracted it within a year given our current samples and equipment. I am confidant that if I was returned to my old lab and allowed to continue work using my samples I could have it within nine months."

"Nine months is a reasonable timeline, and to be expected considering the resources that my son had available." Kakuzawa strolled around his desk and stopped within a foot of Arakawa. He leaned forward so that his face was within inches of hers. "However, I am much more interested in what you could accomplish with more equipment, direct samples from a carrier, and an entire staff of researchers at your disposal."

Arakawa thought about if for a moment. "With those kinds of resources, I could possibly have your virus extracted and synthesized in three months."

Kakuzawa smiled and returned to the window to gaze at the sea. "Then you shall have those resources. I am appointing you to the position of Chief of Research, and the extraction and replication of the virus is going to be your _only_ priority."

"Absolutely sir!" exclaimed Arakawa. "Although, it would be nice if I were to have better accommodations while I m doing my research here. I find I can concentrate better if I am more comfortable."

"Consider it done," said Kakuzawa. "However, I must warn you now that you will still be kept under twenty-four hour surveillance. My last Chief of Research made the mistake of sneaking around behind my back and he paid for it with his life. I will tolerate no disobedience."

Arakawa's knees shook and she had to support herself on the desk. "Don't worry sir, you have my complete loyalty. I will devote everything I have to finding a cure for the diclonius gene and halting its spread."

"Perhaps it is better if you understand your true purpose here, Arakawa. Your research is not going to halt the evolution of mankind; it is going to advance it. I want the virus itself, not a vaccine." Kakuzawa turned to face her and removed his wig. Arakawa gulped and forced herself not to stare at the horns sprouting from the Director's head. "You have completely misunderstood what diclonism is, Arakawa. It is not a virus that causes a congenital deformity, it is a mutation that has taken the course of human evolution in a whole new direction, and nature itself seems intent that mankind must change. As you can see, my family was blessed to begin the process centuries ago. Most unfortunately, the gene that caused our superiority was recessive and the necessity of continuing our bloodline had reduced us to little more than oddities. But nature introduced the diclonius gene again, and it has randomly appeared in two queens that appeared roughly at the same time in roughly the same region. Do you understand what all this would imply, Arakawa?"

Arakawa thought about it for a moment. "That the genetic coding for diclonism is present in the DNA of all humans, and that it only needs certain environmental factors to activate those genes in any random set of parents who have yet to conceive their child."

"You demonstrate intelligence," chuckled Kakuzawa. "You already understand that nature is trying again and again to change humanity into a new race. Your job is now to help speed up the process, since nature acts too slowly. The diclonius can spread their genes by use of a virus that they telekinetically plant into a human carrier. I want a virus that can be transmitted to entire populations without the necessity of a diclonius queen infiltrating a population and infecting as many people as possible before she is discovered. That sort of process could take decades, and I don't have that much time. The new world I create must have a leader to guide it through its tumultuous change, and I shall be the one to lead it."

Arakawa turned very pale and slowly walked backwards towards the door. "You…you're crazy! You are absolutely insane! If anyone knew that you are trying to cause the extinction of the human species..!"

Kakuzawa frowned and returned to his desk. Arakawa froze in horror as he opened a drawer and pulled out the same gun he had used to shoot her only a few months ago. He clicked the safety off and pointed it squarely at her torso. "I will shoot to kill this time, so I would not recommend that you try my patience. You have your ultimatum Arakawa; you can serve me well and become one of my chosen Vassals when I have reshaped this world, or you can die right here and now. Choose."

Arakawa looked desperately around her surroundings. There was no one to help her this time. No witnesses to testify of what they had seen. The months of isolation and confinement and the humiliating treatment she had received had completely broken her will. It was the work of a moment for self preservation to overcome integrity. "I…I will get you your virus."

"Good girl, Arakawa." Kakuzawa he put the safety back on his pistol and returned it to his desk. "You will quickly find that I am quite generous in rewarding obedience." He pressed a button on his desk and the two guards reentered the room. "Take Arakawa to her new chambers. She is going to start work on my virus first thing tomorrow."

Neither of the guards who escorted Arakawa back to her new dwelling noticed the tears falling freely down her face.

-:-:-

"Ow, geez!" Kohta dropped his hammer and began sucking furiously at the thumb he had just smashed. He was sitting on the roof of the Inn and was trying to replace several loose shingles. A recent rainstorm had revealed that the roof was leaking in several places and Yuka was insistent that the leaky spots be re-shingled before they got any worse. Kohta shook his head and climbed down the ladder he had propped up, wishing for the hundredth time that day that Yuka would just hire a professional to take care of it.

Lucy was in the gardens as usual as Kohta made his way to the washroom to run cold water on his aching thumb. It had been almost a month since she had returned home and she had decided to help out by de-weeding the horribly overgrown gardens. It was a simple task that required a lot of physical labor, and that kind of hard work was just what she needed to keep herself and her mind occupied. Of course, Wanta wasn't helping at all since he seemed to feel the need to roll around in the neat piles of weeds that Lucy pulled. She looked up from pulling weeds with a sly smile on her face. "Smacked another one have you?"

Kohta sighed as he examined his now heavily bandaged fingers. "This was not the way I was hoping to spend my weekend. Why couldn't Yuka hire someone who knows what they are doing?"

"Because we don't have the money to hire a professional," Yuka called from the dining room. "Both of you wash your hands, lunch is ready."

Lucy set a side her weed basket and hurried to get her hands washed. She and Kohta quickly made their way to the washroom and began scrubbing. "You still haven't told her, have you?" asked Lucy.

Kohta quickly rinsed the suds from his hands and began drying them on a fresh towel. "I don't know what you're talking about." He tried to leave but Lucy blocked the washroom door.

"Kohta, Yuka has the right to know what happened. You need to tell her."

Kohta slowly exhaled and stared at the floor. "I know I should, but I can't…And why are you trying so hard to get along with Yuka anyways? I thought the whole reason you killed Dad and Kanae was because you were jealous of Yuka to the point of being psychotic and had to punish me."

Lucy turned very red and stared at her shoes. There was no mistaking the accusatory tone in Kohta's voice, and it hurt her. "Whatever part of me is still left from that time…whatever part of me still becomes angry and irrational…I am trying to get rid of it. Yuka will find out sooner or later, and I'm certain that it will cause a rift between you two if you don't tell her. I've caused you enough pain Kohta, give me a chance to prevent it for once."

Kohta looked back into Lucy's face. The hurt in her eyes touched that part of Kohta that was easily moved to comfort the hurt and the lost. It was almost that exact same hurt look that Kanae had in her eyes when Kohta had told her he would have to hate her for the rest of her life. "Lucy, I'm sorry…I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."

Lucy stepped forward, wrapped her arms under Kohta's, and buried her face against his chest. "I'm sorry too, Kohta…for killing your father and your sister. I've never apologized for that." Lucy closed her eyes and let her tears flow freely. "I've caused so much suffering to so many people, and you have endured it he longest. Yet you still welcome me back into your home…why?"

Kohta wrapped his arms about Lucy's shoulders and pulled her closer. "When you finally told me what you had done…when I finally remembered, part of me wanted to hate you for it, but I couldn't, because when I saw your face I saw that sad lonely girl from so long ago, and I saw Nyu who was so lost and so innocent. I couldn't hate someone I liked so much, and I couldn't stay mad at such a person either. Lucy…I…I forgive you."

Lucy sobbed into Kohta's chest. For eight years she had needed to hear these words. With those three little words Lucy felt something inside her awaken, something she did not wish to confront anymore.

_Lucy found herself sitting in a dreary place, full of dark mist. It was here in her childhood that something unclean had awoken inside her._

"Is he serious about forgiving you, or is this just another lie to keep you quiet?"_ Lucy shuddered and looked over her shoulder. That familiar figure was there, looking much older, but still wrapped in bandages. _"Can you actually trust him? He lied to you once; you can bet he'll do it again."

_"Get out of my head!" snarled Lucy. "I don't need you anymore. I don't need you prompting me to kill people just to make me feel better. I have a home and a family. You aren't going to ruin that for me, not this time!" With that Lucy began to walk away._

**"Don't you dare turn your back on me you ungrateful bitch!"**_ the voice thundered. Lucy stood rooted on the spot trembling. That voice which had always been so seductive had suddenly turned angry. Lucy was unsure of what to do, unsure if it would even let her leave. _"**I** was the one who carried us through all those years! **I** was the one who helped us survive! You are **nothing** without me!"

_Out of the corner of Lucy's eye another figure stepped out of the gloom. It looked like her, but with eyes that showed nothing less than complete innocence. "__Nyuu__!" the figure cried and flung __itself into her arms. Behind her she heard a hiss of pain and a cry of agony that faded away into nothingness. _

_Lucy looked at the other in shock. "You made her go away?"_

_"Bad things," cried __Nyu__"Bad things scary, no good.__ Make them go away!"_

_"Yes, it looks like she's gone," said Lucy._

_"But she's not gone for good, not if you keep hurting people," replied __Nyu__. She took Lucy's shoulders and looked her square in the eye. "I __cant__ be awake and in control any more Lucy. I was there because you felt guilty for hurting __Kohta__. We needed to help him to not feel sad anymore. Now that __Kohta__ has forgiven us, my purpose is served, but I will always be here in this place to guide you when I can. You know you can do kind things, because I can do kind things. Lucy, you have one more person you need to apologize to, one more person whose forgiveness you need to ask for. She was hurt too when you hurt __Kohta__. She felt sad for a long time when she thought __Kohta__ had forgotten her. I remember__ I saw it when I first came to this house. You hurt her too, Lucy. You must make her hurt go away so you can feel better too." __Nyu__ stepped back into the gloom, her voice fading with her into the darkness. "You can do great things Lucy. God has given you the ability to make a difference in this world, for good or evil. The choice is yours…"_

…

Lucy found herself lying on her bed. She did not need to guess how she had gotten there, she knew perfectly well. She felt someone bathing her forehead with cool water and was surprised to see who it was. "Yuka?"

Yuka bent over her with a worried expression. "Kohta said that you and he were talking and that you collapsed. You've been laying here muttering to yourself for almost twenty minutes."

Lucy slowly sat up and rubbed her head. She had never blanked out for that long before. But, she had also never waged war with that voice in the back of her head before. She looked at Yuka and suddenly remembered that cryptic message that Nyu had left her. She threw her arms about Yuka's neck. "Yuka, I'm so sorry!"

Yuka gently stroked the back of Lucy's head. "Sorry for what Lucy?" she asked.

Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, Lucy began relating a rather unpleasant piece of her personal history with Kohta.

…

Kohta returned from the drug store with the items that Yuka had sent him to fetch for Lucy. I had taken him more than an hour and he had spent the entire time worrying about whether or not Lucy would be ok. As he made his way to Lucy's bedroom he noticed that Yuka was sitting by herself at the dining room table with an oddly blank expression on her face. Setting down the grocery bag, he quickly rushed to her side. "Yuka, is everything ok? How's Lucy, is she alright?"

"When were you planning on telling me?" Yuka whispered, still staring at the table.

"Huh? Yuka what are you talking abou…"

Yuka swung around and slammed one fist into Kohta's jaw so hard that he saw stars. "When were you planning on telling me?!" She shrieked, tears running down her face. Yuka grabbed Kohta's shirt collar and began shaking him. "When were you planning on telling me that we had adopted a murderer and she was living in our home?! When were you planning on telling me that she was the one who…the one who...?!"

Yuka slumped over onto the floor and began sobbing. As Kohta tried to help her into a sitting position Nana and Mayu came rushing in to the dining room. "What happened?" cried Nana. "Is Yuka hurt?"

"I'm not hurt," said Yuka, sitting up and wiping the tears from her eyes. "Actually no, I am. How could you keep something like this from me, Kohta?!"

Nana seemed to understand. "So Kohta finally told you about Miss Lucy; about what she did to him all those years ago."

Yuka stared at Nana in confusion. "Nana…you knew?"

"I knew that Lucy had killed a bunch of people before I met any of you," said Nana. She stared at the floor looking very embarrassed. "I was part of the same research lab where Lucy was kept. They sent me to find her when she escaped."

"I…also knew as well," said Mayu. "I knew that Lucy had killed a lot of people before you found her, and after she came back Nana and I have been trying to convince Lucy to convince Kohta to tell you." Mayu looked as though she was about to cry. "I'm sorry that we caused such a bad argument between you and Kohta. We knew it would be hard, but we figured you should hear it from Kohta instead of us."

"I didn't hear it from Kohta," sobbed Yuka. "I heard it from _her_."

"Huh, Lucy told you?" gasped Kohta. "I mean…why? What else did she say?"

"She said she needed my forgiveness, of all things" said Yuka. "But I don't see why I _should_ forgive her."

"Neither do I," said Mayu, her tone suddenly serious. "After all, other than causing Kohta to forget you for a while she really didn't do anything to you to justify holding a grudge against her. It was Nana and Kohta that she hurt the most, and they've forgiven her, or at least they should," she added with a sideways glance at Nana.

"Wait a minute," said Kohta, staring at Mayu. "How did you know..?"

"Nana and I…um, overheard you and Lucy just before she collapsed. I'm sorry for eavesdropping."

"So I'm the last one to find out about any of this," said Yuka. She stopped sobbing and curled into a little ball with her chin resting on her knees. "Did none of you trust me enough to tell me?"

"You reacted exactly the way I expected you to," said Kohta, rubbing his bruised jaw.

"Yuka, maybe you should go talk to Lucy," said Mayu. "I mean, she's been trying to learn to like you ever since she came back."

"Hmph!" scoffed Nana. "Miss Lucy just wants to get along with Yuka to make Kohta happy and…ouch!" Mayu poked Nana hard in the ribs and gave Nana a rather dirty look.

"Yuka, she truly is sorry for what she has done," said Kohta, his voice barely above a whisper. "People can change, if you let them."

Yuka rose to her feet and took a deep breath. "Alright, I'll go talk to Lucy."

…

Lucy sat alone in her bedroom. She had gathered her few meager belongings into a pillowcase and was in the process of writing a note for Kohta when she heard the door to her room slide open. Yuka was standing in the doorway looking at her with a pained expression on her face. "Were you planning on going somewhere?" she asked, noting the pillowcase and the note.

Lucy set the note down and stared at the floor. "After that screaming session in the dining room, I just assumed that…"

"That I was going to throw you out, or turn you in to the police?" Yuka sat down next to Lucy on her mattress and just stared at her own feet. They both sat that way for several long uncomfortable moments. "What do you think I should do, Lucy?"

"I would have tossed me back out in the streets, if I didn't try to exact vengeance that is."

"It would be an understandable decision, given the circumstances" Yuka agreed. "But what would you prefer I do?"

Lucy stared at Yuka in shock. She knew just how temperamental Yuka could be, how she made snap decisions based on her sometimes extreme emotional reactions. And yet, here was Yuka, being deliberately calm, and letting Lucy decide what fate she should suffer. What fate she _wanted_ to suffer. "I…would like to stay," said Lucy, quietly.

"Then stay you shall," said Yuka. "If Kohta can forgive you, even for murdering his father and sister right in front of him, then how could I refuse to do the same, especially since you have never really done any harm to me." Yuka rose to her feet and headed for the door. Before opening it she turned around to face Lucy one more time. "But Lucy, you still have a lot to atone for. You have our forgiveness, but you still need to do what you can to try and set things right." And with that Yuka slid the door open and stepped into the hall. "You, Kohta and I missed lunch…come on quick before it gets any colder."

Lucy breathed a sigh of relief and spent a few moments gathering her wits and letting the truth of what happened sink in before joining Kohta and Yuka for lunch. She had heard it said many years ago, though she could not remember where, that confession was good for the soul. She believed it now. She knew that the people she had hurt the most bore no bitter feelings toward her and it looked like everything was going to work out just fine for her new little family.

-:-:-

_Rebecca looked almost incredulous after __Kohta__ finished telling them about keeping his unusual little family together. "You know, I seriously don't get you, Mister __Kohta__. Not only did you _forgive_ that Horned One for murdering your father and sister, it sounded like you were actually in _love_ with her!"_

_"Yeah, I don't get it either," said Judith. "If you were in love with that __diclonius__, then how did you end up marrying that other girl, Yuka?"_

_"And how did you know about this __Kakuzawa__ guy finding another Horned Queen?" asked Jim, his voice full of suspicion._

_Kohta__ sighed and rubbed the stump of his left leg. "Your questions are going to have to wait until after breakfast. There is much more to tell and I really don't feel like talking on an empty stomach…"_


	3. Pandora's Box

Director Kakuzawa frowned slightly as he read through the reports that Arakawa had given to him. "You are absolutely positive of this?"

"Yes sir, the tests have confirmed it," said Arakawa. She adjusted her glasses and began flipping through her own notes. "The first thing I did when you gave me those blood samples of both Lucy and Persephone was to compare their DNA. They have more than seven of thirteen alleles in common, but not through their mitochondria. There is no doubt that Lucy and Persephone are half sisters through the same father."

"This seems far too unlikely a coincidence to be correct," growled Kakuzawa. "Although, given the fact that they were raised in the same city, and are close to the same age it would make sense, especially given the fact that their unusual features would make them easier to locate. Inform my agents that I want their father located immediately."

"I already took that initiative, since I felt it was important to know from what source they developed diclonism." Arakawa handed the Director another file that had several photos to accompany it. "One of the sources some of your Vassals were able to tap into were the police files for cases where DNA evidence was collected. We got a hit almost immediately."

Kakuzawa did not recognize the face in the mug shot, but the name was immediately familiar. "Kimoro Asuko? The serial murder-rapist; he was their father?" Kakuzawa looked at the mug-shot again. "He does bare a resemblance to Lucy and Persephone."

Arakawa shuddered. She had read the police files that detailed the nature of his crimes and the very thought of what this man had done to all those young ladies made her skin crawl. "He left five of his victims alive. It is probably best to assume that two of them became pregnant as a result and abandoned their newborns shortly after birth."

"Yes, it is a pity that he was murdered in prison by his fellow inmates; he could have taught us much about how diclonism came about." Kakuzawa looked at another picture from the file. I was clearly a CAT scan of Asuko's head and what it showed greatly interested Kakuzawa. "His pineal gland is enlarged."

"Yes sir. Whatever environmental conditions initially caused diclonism to be reawakened in the human genome he was certainly exposed to them. It can be certain this happened after he was conceived as he seems to have the roots of diclonism, but it isn't fully developed. It would appear that what may have started as little more than an unusual form of cancer with him formed itself into a full genetic mutation with his offspring." What Arakawa was too afraid to show him were the reports from the neurologists and behavioral experts who speculated that his enlarged Pineal gland acted more like a brain tumor; causing all sorts of emotional instability as well as impaired decision making ability.

"So our two random queens were not as random as we originally thought." Kakuzawa set the files back on his desk and fixed Arakawa with a hard stare. "Now, your handlers indicated that you have something else for me; something of great importance. What is it, Arakawa?"

Arakawa steeled herself against the wrongness of what she was about to do. She knew that this was going to have dire consequences for mankind, but the fear of death at the hands of Kakuzawa had driven her to carry out his orders to the best of her abilities. She took a deep breath and pulled a small sealed vial out of her coat pocket. It appeared to be full of nothing more than a pale blue liquid, but its contents were much more complicated and much more sinister. "Your virus is extracted, and successfully synthesized." She quickly dropped the vial into Kakuzawa's awaiting hands.

Kakuzawa held the virus up to his window so that he could see the sun sparkling through the vials contents. It had only been two months since Arakawa had been appointed Chief of Research and it was clear that the gambit on the part of Kakuzawa in putting her in this position had paid off. "At long last…Pandora's Box!" Kakuzawa set the vial on his desk and fixed his gaze on Arakawa. "Is this the only sample of the virus?"

Arakawa closed her eyes and shook he head. "No, we have another twenty under production and can grow more of it at any time. It was extracted from a combination of cells from the queen's Pineal gland and the DNA from one of her eggs. As long a she is alive and does not hit menopause we can re-extract the virus at any time. We were also able to destabilize the virus's coding just enough so that it can be replicated in any biological nutrient base. You can grow it in a Petri dish as easily as you can grow it in successive generations of mosquitoes, mice, or any other life form until it reaches its intended target; a human being. It can also be transmitted along any nutrient source; blood, urine, saliva, eating infected plant or animal tissue…whatever vectors a normal illness can travel along, the diclonius virus can follow as well as long as it is in an organic based nutrient source. It won't survive in ordinary water and current studies indicate that it will most likely not be able to become airborne."

"Having had to destabilize its genetic coding to grow it artificially, will it still produce diclonism?"

Arakawa swallowed nervously. She felt dirtier than she ever had in her life, yet compelled to see this to the end. "We won't know until a person infected with it bares a child."

Kakuzawa nodded and pressed a button on his desk. Arakawa's handlers reentered his office and stood at attention. "Take Arakawa back to her quarters. She has earned some time off to relax." As the handlers flanked his Chief of Research and escorted her out of his office, Kakuzawa leaned back in his enormous chair and sat with his hands pressed together like a praying mantis. He needed a group of test subjects to find out just how viable this virus was. He stared at that little vial for almost an hour before he came to a decision on whom to test it on.

…

As soon as Arakawa was released back into her quarters she immediately stripped off her clothing and got into the shower.

It was a much larger dwelling than she had ever lived in. She would have never been able to afford an apartment of this size as a researcher for Kakuzawa's younger son. The Director had been as good as his word and had rewarded Arakawa with quite a number of luxury accommodations for her successes. An enormous flat screen plasma television hung on one wall and a large fish tank full of living corals and brightly colored marine fishes sparkled behind a wet bar that was kept stocked with a wide assortment of fine wines. In fact, the only thing Arakawa's apartment was missing was a computer with access to the research lab's network (a precautionary measure, as it had been explained to Arakawa).

But none of this mattered to Arakawa at the moment. She simply climbed into the shower and sat on the tiled floor with her arms curled about her shins, letting the water continue to spray over her long after the hot water heater was depleted. She sat that way, staring at the floor and pondering the possible consequences of what she had done.

…

The night security guards were becoming quite complacent in their jobs at the research lab. It was roughly two in the morning and the only guard on duty was bored out of his wits. He sat alone in the control room, not even bothering to look up at the security monitors that he was supposed to keep an eye on. He merely nursed a cup of coffee that had gone cold hours ago and tried to stay awake for the rest of his shift. One of the previous guards had left a newspaper behind and the current guard silently cursed him for doing the crossword puzzle in ink.

The guard yawned and stretched and shook his head in a desperate attempt to keep himself awake. If he had been watching his monitors he would have noticed the Director making his way into the cafeteria where most of the staff came for their meals. He would have also noticed the Director exiting the cafeteria with a very satisfied look on his face.

-:-:-

Lucy sat alone on the long stone stairway that led up from the ocean to Kaede House. It was nearing sunset and she enjoyed watching the ocean from these steps. She didn't know why she found comfort in being in this place; after all she had gone through the very painful experience of bearing her soul to Kohta in almost this exact spot, but she always felt at peace when she watched the sunset from these steps.

Lucy's mind was in inner turmoil over Kohta. Ever since that night when she had told Yuka of their past history he had expressed a desire to become closer to her. Yuka was for the most part ignoring Kohta's attention towards Lucy, and Lucy suspected that she had given up on Kohta entirely. It helped her and Yuka tremendously when they realized that they had no valid reason to be so jealous of one another, but that was not what was causing Lucy confusion.

A scraping sound on the steps above her alerted Lucy that someone was nearby. She looked up to see Yuka standing behind her with a very worried expression on her face. Relieved that she had another young woman he own age to talk to Lucy scooted to one edge of the step and patted the stone next to her. Yuka accepted the invitation and sat down.

"Kohta got worried when you didn't come back for dinner," said Yuka. "Mayu is getting worried about you too. She says you haven't been yourself for the past couple of weeks."

"But you weren't worried about me, were you?" asked Lucy wryly. Yuka smiled and turned away. For the past two months the gap that had separated Lucy and Yuka had been steadily closing. It hadn't been easy though. There was a great deal of jealousy and mistrust to overcome, but overcome they did, and Lucy actually found herself _looking forward _to the time she spent with Yuka.

"Yes, I suppose I was worried about you too," said Yuka, putting a false strain into her voice. "Seriously though, what's bothering you Lucy?"

Lucy took a deep breath and tried hard to find the best words to describe how she was feeling. "I'm afraid, Yuka," she said at last. "I'm afraid of the way Kohta and I feel about each other."

Yuka seemed to understand. "You certainly have been pushing him away the closer he tries to get to you. I just don't understand why."

"I don't understand it either," said a familiar voice behind Yuka and Lucy. They both turned to see a very worried looking Kohta making his way down the steps. He sat himself down next to Lucy and gazed at the sun sinking below the horizon over the sea. "I thought I might find you here," Kohta said after a few moments. "It always seems to be on these stone steps that we meet and our lives are changed forever."

Yuka began to rise to her feet with a sad expression on her face. "You two need some privacy. I'll meet you back at the…" Yuka was unable to stand as Lucy reached out and seized her upper arm. It was not for the first time that Yuka had been surprised by the strength that this young woman possessed.

"You don't need to leave Yuka. It might be best if you heard this as well." As Yuka sat back down Lucy turned to face Kohta. "Kohta, do you remember what I told you here, that night when I finally confessed what I had done to you? Do you remember what I said I was capable of?"

Lucy's words echoed in Kohta's mind like a dark wind. _'If I had just five years, I could make the majority of children who're born are our kind. But if the world becomes like that, you also won't be alive.'_ Kohta nodded in understanding. "You're afraid of what will happen if we get too close, if we were to have children."

Lucy nodded and rested her head on her knees. "Any children I bare will be like me, and they will be able to spread diclonism across the earth as fast as the most infectious disease. At times, I wonder if it had been better if I had been killed by the soldiers sent from that research lab; but it would still be terribly unfair for me to die just to ensure that the diclonius gene ends with me. I have not used my vectors to infect any humans ever since I came back to your home, but I cannot answer for any children I might bare. Any offspring I have will be as big a threat to mankind as I am, and I would only be able to control them for so long. I have no desire to leave any children as a legacy of what I am."

Kohta rested his elbows on his knees and looked at the ground. "It doesn't have to be that way, Lucy. We could adopt. I mean, if you don't want any children of your own there are other…"

"Kohta, you still don't understand," said Lucy as she rose to her feet. "This is the hardest thing I've ever had to do, the hardest decision I have ever had to make. Kohta…you and I…just weren't meant to be."

Yuka just stared at Lucy in shock. "Lucy…I…don't know what to say."

"You don't need to say anything Yuka," said Lucy. "I so desperately needed to know someone cared when I was younger, and Kohta showed me that someone did. It will be good for me to know that someone out there cares for me." Lucy began making her way down the steps. She paused after a few feet and turned to face Yuka and Kohta. "You two really do have something special together. I really do wish you the best of happiness." And with that she turned and began walking back down the steps.

She didn't get far though. Before Kohta could even open his mouth to protest Yuka raced down the stairs and placed herself between Lucy and her destination. Yuka pulled Lucy into a tight embrace and refused to let go. "Don't leave us, Lucy," said Yuka desperately. "I know that we haven't always been friends, or even really on good terms with each other, but I have come to depend on you as much as Kohta, Mayu and Nana have!"

Lucy could not help but smile at this. Certainly Mayu saw Lucy as family, but Nana still refused to believe that Lucy had truly changed. "Yuka, you and Kohta don't need me in the way. I'll just be a…"

"Don't say such things!" cried Yuka as she squeezed Lucy even tighter. "You won't be a burden, or a nuisance, or a distraction. When Nyu disappeared, I actually found myself feeling sad; I had come to like her and I missed her. If you leave, Lucy, I'll feel sad about that as well. We're your family Lucy! Kaede House is your home; you can't just walk out on all of us!"

"Ok, I'll stay Yuka," gasped Lucy. "But on one condition."

"What condition?"

"That you let go of me right now," wheezed Lucy. "I can't breathe with you squeezing me so tight, Yuka!"

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" cried Yuka as she released Lucy. Kohta made his way down the steps to join them as well.

Lucy could tell that Kohta was hurt, but the expression on his face confused her. "You know, I had been wondering myself for some time exactly how I felt about you," Kohta said slowly. "You always seemed to be so sad, so lost, and it always prompted me to try to comfort you. I always knew I loved you, but I suppose I wasn't truly _in love_ with you though."

Lucy smiled weakly and placed one hand on Kohta's chest. "I was a substitute for Kanae. Nana, Mayu, myself; we were all there to help you overcome your guilt for telling your sister that you hated her just before I…"

Kohta nodded in understanding. She didn't need to finish her sentence. "Come on you two, Nana and Mayu will be worried about us."

-:-:-

"_So you both just agreed that you couldn't be together," said Judith Anderson. "That doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I thought you two were nuts about each other?"_

"_I thought we were too," said Kohta. "But Lucy knew what the risks would have been if we had gotten together. It just took me a little longer to see it."_

"_So how soon did you know you were going to marry your cousin?" asked Jim. He raised one eyebrow. "Are you sure you're from Japan and not from Alabama or Mississippi?"_

_Kohta glared at him for a moment. "The customs in Japan are not the same as they are here. In Japan it is not common to marry one's cousin, but it also isn't nearly as taboo as it is here. But it was less than a month after that incident that I proposed to Yuka. We agreed to get married three months later…"_

-:-:-

"Yuka, are you sure you're not going to change your mind about this?" Kohta placed the telephone back on the receiver as Yuka hurried past him carrying Nana and Mayu's dresses.

"I'm not going to change my mind Kohta. I just think that Western style weddings are so romantic; with the gowns and the cake and the reception party…"

"Yeah, well, you've managed to upset the majority of your family by not having a traditional Japanese wedding." Kohta wiggled one finger in his ear and scrunched up his face in pain. "I don't know that I'll ever be able to hear out of this ear properly, not after that screaming fit your mother just threw."

"Well it's not my mother's wedding is it? Ah Lucy! Here, I need you Nana and Mayu to try these on. We need to see if they fit and if they need to be adjusted at all."

Lucy had just entered the common room carrying what looked like several intricate white picket fences wrapped in greenery. Several of them seemed to hover in the air of their own accord. As far as Kohta could tell this was the first time she had used her vectors since she had come home. "Sure thing, Yuka," she groaned. "Just give me a minute to set these with the others."

As Lucy carried the railings to one of the spare bedrooms that they were using to store everything, Kohta could not help but feel a little sympathetic towards Lucy's plight. "She looks exhausted," he remarked.

Yuka's face drooped. Lucy had been running herself ragged trying to help Yuka get this thing planned. "She's been helping out a lot. Nana and Mayu have been pitching in too, but they can't run errands and pick up items the same way Lucy can. Weddings are time consuming to plan."

"Especially if you're planning one on the fly," said Lucy as she returned to gather the brides-maids dresses. "I have no objections to the style of wedding you chose, Yuka; but couldn't you have given yourself more time to plan it? Two months is too a short window to organize something this big." She quickly gathered the dresses and hurried off to distribute them to Nana and Mayu.

Yuka and Kohta continued to seal thank-you letters into envelopes until a shriek of delight erupted from the hallway. They both looked up to see Nana rushing down the hall in her new dress with Mayu and Lucy close in tow.

"How does this look on me Yuka?!" squealed Nana. "I've never worn something this pretty before! Do I look pretty in it Yuka, do I?!" Nana spun around in a circle so that they could see all sides of her.

Yuka smiled indulgently and patted Nana on the head. "You look very pretty in this dress, Nana."

Mayu stepped behind Nana and poked her in the back of the head. "It certainly looks a lot better with her arms reattached. They both popped off when she was reaching for her zipper."

"Hmph, you meanie!" Nana stuck her tongue out and blew a raspberry at Mayu.

Kohta couldn't help but smile at the antics of these two friends. "Hey, you two aren't going to keep fighting like this after Yuka and I move to Tokyo are you?" he asked, mock seriously.

"Of course not," said Nana with a wide smile. She quickly dropped the smile and looked rather glum. "Are you sure that you and Yuka can't stay here with us? Why do you have to move to Tokyo anyways?"

"Because that's where the robotics company who agreed to hire me is located. It's not like we're never going to see each other again." Kohta smiled reassuringly and ruffled Nana's hair between her horns. "We're still all going to be a family Nana. Tokyo is just a train ride away so we'll come and visit often."

"Or maybe I can come and live with you and Yuka?" exclaimed Nana, perking up noticeably. "I don't take up much room and I'm really useful to have around now that I know how to cook and clean!"

"It's not that Nana," said Kohta with a small sigh. "It's just that Yuka and I are going to need some…alone time, with just the two of us."

"Why do you need alone time?" asked Nana curiously.

Yuka turned rather red. "I think maybe you and I should have a little talk later tonight Nana. Don't worry," she added, noting the apprehension on Nana's face. "It's an important discussion that every mother needs to have with their daughters when they turn about your age." Yuka turned even redder and sank down into her seat. "Though I didn't expect I would have to give it this early in life."

"I think the real root of Nana's separation anxiety," said Lucy slowly, "isn't so much that you are leaving, as much as it is Nana being left here under my supervision."

Nana glowered and looked at the floor. "I don't see why Miss Lucy is going to be the one taking care of us. I'd almost rather take my chances at an orphanage."

"No you wouldn't," said Lucy sternly. "Trust me Nana, I grew up in an orphanage and the children there would demonstrate a level of cruelty towards you that you could not possibly imagine."

"Living with a bunch of cruel children my own age couldn't be any worse than living with someone who is such a grouch all the time."

"Yeah, well, getting stuck babysitting an immature brat for who knows how long is going to be no picnic for me either!"

Nana and Lucy both dropped into defensive stances and stood glaring at each other. Quickly Yuka injected herself between them. "Alright, knock it off you two. Kohta and I are moving to Tokyo , and either you two are going to learn to get along or you're going to be completely miserable. It's time to work out your differences."

Kohta quickly rushed into the kitchen and returned moments later with a spatula which he handed to Mayu. "Mayu, I'm putting Lucy in charge of Kaede House, but I'm putting _you_ in charge of discipline. If Lucy and Nana keep fighting you have my permission to beat _both_ of them with this."

Lucy just stared in shock at Kohta as Yuka tried to suppress a giggle but ended up giving a rather unladylike snort through her nose.

Yuka's giggling quickly turned in to sobs as she burst into tears and hugged the three girls in turn. "Oh, you three have no idea how much I'm going to miss this when we're gone!"

Lucy patted Yuka's shoulder reassuringly. "Don't worry Yuka I'll take good care of them. Remind me to also thank your mother for getting me that start-up loan to reopen the Inn."

"So you really intend to reopen this place for business?" asked Kohta as he looked about the walls. "This place just seems kind of…primitive."

"That's the kind of image I'm going to give it," said Lucy. She looked around with a satisfied smile on her face. "A quaint, rustic retreat where visitors can be assured of peace, quiet, and the atmosphere of bygone days. Trust me Kohta; you aren't going to recognize this place once it is reopened." Lucy patted Mayu on the head. "And of course I'll have Mayu and Nana to help me run it."

Nana gave a small sigh. "I wish Nyu would come back, I miss her. She was very sweet all the time. Miss Lucy is just way too serious. Honestly, you never laugh and I think I've only ever seen you cry once."

Lucy decided to pretend she didn't hear that. "Don't worry about us at all Kohta. I have big plans for this place. And I promise that nothing will happen to Nana and Mayu. I'll see to it…"

-:-:-

**Nine Months Later**

Director Kakuzawa stood outside the windows of the maternity ward that had been built in his research center. He was glad that he had the foresight to have his own private obstetrician facility as it had proven to be immensely useful in his upcoming project. He had offered free obstetric care to his full time staff as an employee benefit, and considering that most of them knew that the facility was researching the potential difficulties of reproduction they were only too happy to accept the free care.

And the offer had paid off for Director Kakuzawa. It had been discovered four months after he had spiked a batch of lettuce in the cafeteria with the diclonius virus that at least eight of his staff were pregnant with diclonius offspring. Three of them were women who actually worked at the facility and the rest were men who had given the contents of Pandora's Box to their spouses at home. Kakuzawa had felt a perverse sense of pleasure in watching his research staff's frantic attempts to find out exactly how these eight staff members who had never been near a diclonius could be pregnant with one.

There were also a number of Kakuzawa's staff who had unexplained miscarriages, but Kakuzawa could not concern himself with their troubles. All that mattered to him was that his artificial virus had its intended effect.

Kakuzawa looked at the man slumped over in the chair next to him. He was nothing more than a simple janitor, but he held the great distinction in Kakuzawa's eyes of being the first father of an artificial diclonius. The man, one Hikaru Komakoto, rested his elbows on his knees and supported his head with his hands. His face was a mask of distress.

"I don't see how this could have happened," Hikaru sobbed. "I've never been inside a diclonius's cell; I've never been closer than twenty meters to one. How could I have been exposed to the diclonius gene?"

Kakuzawa placed a hand on Hikaru's shoulder in an apparent gesture of comfort. "There may be conditions that cause diclonism to appear randomly, or they may have found a way other than their vectors to spread their filthy, defective genes. But, Hikaru, your daughter may be able to tell us why diclonism is appearing randomly in people who have never been exposed to their vectors."

Hikaru looked at the Director in disbelief. "You're asking me to sacrifice my daughter in the name of science. How can you ask me such a thing? Why can't we have a chance of being a family?!"

Kakuzawa gently shook his head. "When you were first hired you were shown the videos of the few incidents of diclonius killing their handlers. Years before my own son was killed trying to capture an escaped diclonius he was witness to an incident where a four year old silpelit butchered her own parents and killed three police officers who came to investigate the murders. You know that these creatures are emotionally unstable, and that their parents are often their first victims. You and your wife have had two children successfully together before this unfortunate tragedy. Do you really want to risk the chance of this unstable child of yours killing your wife and children?"

Hikaru shut his eyes and shook his head violently. "No, I can't run the risk to my family. Please, just find out what can be done to prevent others from suffering this same horrible tragedy!"

Kakuzawa gripped Hikaru's shoulder. "Rest assured, Hikaru, your sacrifice will not have been in vain."

…

Director Kakuzawa joined his twelve chosen Vassals in a conference room deep underneath his research facility. These were the twelve men he had chosen to govern his world when he had reshaped it. These twelve men knew of his true plans, and their own blind greed and ambition had led them to throw their full support behind him.

As he entered the room with Chief Arakawa close behind the men rose as one and bowed. "We welcome His Majesty and are honored by his presence."

Arakawa felt sick as she watched these men return to their seats. She had been brought along to give her reports firsthand to Kakuzawa's Vassals, and she had been told point blank that if there was any doubt to her ability to keep the Director's secrets she would not leave this room alive.

As Kakuzawa took his seat one of his Vassals eyed Arakawa suspiciously. "Your Majesty is it wise to have this outsider whose motives are unknown made privy to our meetings. She may not be as trustworthy as you claim."

"Arakawa's life is in my hand," Kakuzawa declared firmly. "She is not permitted any contact with the outside world and her every action, her every word, is monitored closely. She is here to give her report in person because it is thanks to her that Pandora's Box is a success."

There was immediate murmuring around the table as the Vassals began discussing this turn of events. "Does His Majesty mean that we are finally able to produce a silpelit without having a queen infect the host directly?"

Kakuzawa grinned and nodded at Arakawa, "your report please."

Arakawa gulped and began reading through her notes. "Nine months ago I was able to artificially replicate the diclonius virus by extracting DNA for the unfertilized egg cell of a queen as well as by replicating the hormones secreted by her pineal gland. After destabilizing the genetic code of the virus just enough to grow it in an outside nutrient source and blending the hormones of her pineal gland I was able to successfully create a virus that causes diclonism and can be grown in an artificial environment.

"Shortly after the virus was replicated His Majesty secretly introduced the virus to some of his staff members and it was discovered through routine ultrasounds that a number of staff members or their wives were pregnant with diclonius offspring. The first of these offspring was born two days ago and the father willingly surrendered her to us. She was euthanized and after a thorough autopsy of the infant it was discovered that she indeed had the horns and enlarged pineal gland of a diclonius, but that she was born without a developing uterus or ovaries, indicating that this offspring bore all the trademarks of a common, infertile diclonius silpelit. As soon as the other staff members begin giving birth similar tests will determine if the results were the same."

"Thank you Arakawa, that will be all for now." Arakawa stepped back away from Kakuzawa's chair as he addressed his vassals. "Gentlemen, now that we can be assured that our artificial virus is viable and that it produces the desired effects, I believe it may be time to take the next step in our plans. It is time to open Pandora's Box!"

"With all due respect Director, I don't think that is such a good idea." Arakawa looked around the table nervously as Kakuzawa's Vassals began muttering to each other and glaring at her. "I mean, we still don't know all the full effects of this artificial virus. To really understand it we would need to monitor an entire isolated population of these artificial silpelits for a full generation to see what the full effects are."

Kakuzawa rose from his seat and backhanded Arakawa across the face, knocking her to the floor. "You are forgetting your place, Arakawa," he snarled. "Your job is to create what we tell you to create, not to lecture us on the ethics of what we are doing. Being merely human and a woman at that, what we are doing here is beyond your understanding."

Arakawa slowly rose to her feet and wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth. Kakuzawa returned to his chair and resumed his discussion with his Vassals. "Gentlemen, how are we going to open the Box to the world?"

Arakawa listened in growing horror as the Vassals began rattling off suggestions for introducing the virus to the world populace: infecting arthropod parasites such as mosquitoes, ticks, and tsetse flies in third world countries; introducing it to livestock as hormone treatments through various dummy companies created for that purpose; introducing it to plant crops in the form of organic pesticides; infecting populations of those very same crop pests and releasing them; selling it as vitamin supplements; hiding it in vaccines; releasing entire populations of oceanic plankton carrying it so that the world's fish market would soon be teaming with the virus…Arakawa felt more and more nauseous as she listened to these men rattle off plans that would change the course of human evolution.

It took almost an hour of brainstorming before all the ideas for spreading the contents of Pandora's Box were laid out on the table. No idea was rejected as _any_ source of possible transmittal would do.

"Now gentlemen, we come to a slightly trickier part of our operation." Kakuzawa pressed his fingertips together and rested his elbows on the table. "We can extract unfertilized eggs from our queen at any time, but we still do not have the level of technology to grow a living fetus to full term in an artificial womb. We need to repopulate the earth with full reproductive kings and queens once the silpelit army cleanses the earth for us, but we need a source of surrogate wombs to do so. This means rounding up women from the existing human population and keeping them here at the facility. Any suggestions as to where we can find a ready source of young women that will not be missed?"

"It would appear that you have at least one standing right behind you, Your Majesty."

Arakawa backed into the wall and slid down it into a sitting position. Kakuzawa could not help but chuckle as her skin turned as pale as her lab coat. "Yes, Arakawa would be useful in this regard as well, and certainly pregnancy will not hinder her ability as a researcher."

"If I might make another suggestion, Your Majesty," another of his Vassals ventured, "The underground black-market trade of young women as sex slaves is a market where young women _are_ a disposable commodity. Often their families give them up for dead and in many of our third world neighbors parents may sell their daughters just to keep their farms running. We could tap into this market and screen for only the healthiest women, and no one will ever be the wiser if the subjects disappear, never to be seen again."

"An excellent suggestion," said Kakuzawa. "I want aggressive screening done on all candidates for heath concerns. If they have any disease which could be possibly transmitted to their surrogate embryo, do not use them. Return them to the market and if their buyers will not take them back, dispose of them quietly." Kakuzawa looked around at his Vassals. "We also need a ready source of sperm that can be used to fertilize our queen's eggs. I already have your donations, but the few of us will not be able to provide enough genetic diversity to form a stable gene pool. I want you to find potential donors in each of your territories. You must pick only the smartest, strongest, and healthiest specimens to provide the future base for the diclonius population. With the advances in gene manipulation we have made here as well as aggressive screening in hereditary diseases in our embryos we can repopulate this world with near-perfect disease-free reproducers that will ensure a race of super beings that will survive in any conditions. Gentlemen, you have your assignments…see to them."

Kakuzawa remained seated as his Vassals filed out of the conference room. "Arakawa, I have a new assignment for you."

"Y-Yes sir?" Arakawa squeaked.

"We still do not know the full implications of a diclonius queen mating with a regular human. You are going to be studying the effects. I want our wombs divided into two test groups; one carrying embryos fertilized by fathers not carrying the virus, and one group carrying embryos fertilized by fathers who were previously infected by the virus. You will be handling this assignment personally. I want you to supervise the extraction of eggs from our queen as well as the distribution of the virus among the sperm samples, their fertilization, and their insertion into their surrogate wombs." Kakuzawa rose from his seat and stood over Arakawa who was still sitting on the floor shaking. "Do not fail me Arakawa. And it would be wise for you to learn your place. You are being given a great privilege in carrying the first of my new queens to term. It would be wise of you did not do anything that might place you in the same standing as the surrogate wombs that will be arriving as soon as we can procure them." And with that Kakuzawa left the conference room and left Arakawa to stew in her own overwhelming guilt.

…

Deep in the bowels of the research center, Arakawa watched as the surgeons began preparing to operate on Persephone for the latest extraction of her eggs. She stood next to the queen and shook her head as the surgeons began laying out their instruments in neat rows next to an operating table set up in her cell. "It looks like you and I are in the same position," she murmured to the queen. "We are stuck being merely servants for a madman. You and I have done things for him that no one else could do, and yet he treats us as machinery." Arakawa sighed and shook her head. "Sometimes I actually envy your half-sister. She was in your position too before she was released by an old colleague of mine." Arakawa stared off into space for a moment. "I can't help but wonder if Lucy found a way to be happy in the outside world. I wonder what she is up to out there."

As the surgeons placed a gas mask over Persephone's face to knock her out before the surgery, her mind was racing with only two thoughts. _'Half-sister…Lucy?'_


	4. Children

_Kohta gratefully accepted the leg of one of the animals being roasted over the fire. Both of the families were gathered around him now and were anxious to hear the rest of the tale. The meat was a bit oily and somewhat foul to the taste, but Kohta had not had any meat in his diet in months and was ravenous for it. The only real source of protein his family came across in their travels was ant and wasp nests. "What kind of animal did you say this was from?" he asked around the piece he was chewing on._

"_Feral cat," replied Jim. "It aint the best stuff, but we just have to take what we can get right now. Normally we'd kill skunks and raccoons but they've all gone into hibernation for the winter. Just count yourself lucky you didn't have to kill the damn thing."_

"_So, mister Kohta, what happened next?" asked Judith. "What happened after you and your cousin got married? You said that your story ties into the spread of the diclonius, but so far it hasn't seemed to happen."_

_Kohta finished chewing his piece and quickly wiped the grease from his lips. "Our tales tie together eventually. Huh, everyone's individual stories will eventually merge with the uprising silpelits, but the only way I know how to explain what happened is through what my family experienced. I suppose my oldest daughter Kanae was born about the same time that the world started noticing the growing diclonius population…"_

-:-:-

Kohta leapt to his feet as the doorbell rang inside his and Yuka's apartment. With a broad smile he leapt to his feet and rushed to greet his guests. Three of the people he loved most in the world were standing there waiting for him. "Lucy, it's so good to see you!" exclaimed Kohta as he embraced his friend. He also warmly greeted Mayu and Nana. "My goodness Nana, you're certainly getting taller." Kohta looked Nana up and down. She no longer looked like that lost thirteen-year-old that Mayu had brought home. In the two years he had known her she had already aged to the point where she could easily pass for eighteen or nineteen, and she now stood nearly as tall as Kohta.

"I don't age the same way as humans do," Nana said quietly. "Being a silpelit means I age at twice the normal speed of humans." She flexed her prosthetic arms. "It's getting tough upgrading these things, but I shouldn't have to keep replacing them for to too much longer."

Kohta stood to one side as he allowed his friends in. He quickly rushed to put the flowers they brought in a vase. "Yuka, our guests are here!"

Yuka quickly joined them in the living room carrying a small squirming bundle wrapped in blankets. She sat down in a rocking chair as Mayu and Nana come to get a closer look.

"Well Kanae certainly looks a lot cuter now that she isn't all red and wrinkly anymore," said Nana.

"That's because the last time you saw her she was only a few hours old," Yuka gently chided. "Babies don't usually look their cutest right after they come out."

Lucy also came over to get a closer look at Kanae. "I can't help but wonder at the name you picked for her Kohta," said Lucy as she gently stroked the baby's hair. Kanae burbled happily and grasped Lucy's finger.

"Actually, naming her Kanae was my idea," said Yuka. "Kohta was set on calling her Nyu."

Everyone sat around catching up on old times for the next few hours. Kohta had recently been promoted at the robotics firm he had been hired at and would soon be able to afford the down payment on a decent sized condo. Lucy was having great success with getting Kaede House back up and running and they already had the restaurant reopened. As soon as she was able to put some finishing touches on renovating the rooms and could hire more staff she had plans to rent a small apartment nearby and have the Inn itself reopen for business.

It did not take Lucy long to spot that Kohta had something on his mind. He was being unusually quiet and kept glancing in Lucy's direction. "Is there something bothering you Kohta?" Lucy finally asked.

Kohta nodded. 'There is something I need to talk to you about; something important. Walk with me." Kohta went to the door and retrieved his jacket from a coat rack. "Are you coming, Lucy?"

Lucy looked to Yuka. "What's going on?"

"It's something important Lucy. All I can say is that it has to do with those news reports we've been seeing for the last month."

Bracing herself for the worst, Lucy grabbed her jacket and followed Kohta out the door.

They walked for a long time before Kohta halted in the walkway on a bridge. He rested his arms on the railing and gazed down at the river running underneath them. Lucy likewise stood next to him, not saying a word for a few moments. "I suppose you are wondering why people worldwide are suddenly giving birth to so many diclonius children," she said at last.

"Yes, that is why I asked you to come here," said Kohta, turning around and resting his back on the rails. "Lucy, what is going on? I know that you haven't been using your vectors to infect anyone, and there is no possible way that you could have caused these infants to all of a sudden appear worldwide."

"This has been weighing heavily on my mind too Kohta," Lucy closed her eyes and screwed up her face in concentration. "I can feel them though. It's been getting stronger as more of them are being born, like each new diclonius is adding their small infantile voices to a chorus in my head." Lucy shuddered involuntarily. "But their voices are strange; unfamiliar…it's like being caught naked in a room full of strangers. I really don't like the sensation."

Kohta looked amazed. "You can feel them all that clearly? And what do you mean their voices are strange and unfamiliar?"

Lucy rested her elbows on the bridge railing and stared at the river. She was trying to find the right words to describe her thoughts. "Those few silpelits that I caused before the research teams found me, most of them seemed to be my offspring, in a way. When enough of us were gathered together we could tell where one another are. That was how Nana first found me. When I was kept contained in the facility their voices fell silent. I suspect that they were blocked by that restraint helmet they made me wear to disable my vectors. But when I was out and others were near me I could feel them. They felt close to me, almost like family I'd known for years." Lucy shook her head. "But these silpelits…don't seem to recognize me. They are still infants, and still purely instinctive, but already they don't like it when I reach out and touch them."

Kohta pondered this for a moment. He thought of everything that Lucy had ever told him about diclonism, trying to find a possible answer to what she was saying. "Are you suggesting that there may be another queen out there; another one like you who can spread your kind across the earth?"

"That's what I thought too," said Lucy. "But if there was another queen I would have felt her. I can brush the minds of the silpelits still at the facility where I was kept, I can feel Nana's presence very clearly, and I can hear the cries of these infants that seem to be popping up out of nowhere…but I cannot feel the presence of another queen at all."

Something Lucy had just said stuck out in Kohta's mind. "Lucy, do you think those people who ran that facility found a way to produce your kind artificially? I remember you saying something to the effect that this was their goal from the beginning."

"Their goal was to replace humankind with diclonius. I remember; when you left me with that professor his intent was to get me pregnant and begin the process of introducing new reproducers into the world to start the process. He told me this after I came too laying naked on the floor of his lab."

Kohta stared at Lucy in horror. "It was my fault you were left there. Lucy…he didn't…?!"

Lucy simply shook her head. "No. I killed him before he could have his way with me."

Kohta raised one eyebrow. "Usually when the subject of people whose lives you ended comes up you either avoid the situation or look extraordinarily ashamed. How can you speak of this victim so casually?"

"Because I probably saved lives by ending his," Lucy turned to face Kohta so she could look him in the eye. "Professor Kakuzawa may have been a brilliant scientist, but he was a buffoon and an idiot, and a dangerous one at that. Even worse is his father. They both visited me in my cell numerous times to tell me how wonderful it would be when the three of us were leading a new world populated with diclonius. The younger Kakuzawa may have had the brains to carry out some of the technical aspects of their plans, but he was not the organizer, not like his father. As long as the senior Kakuzawa is alive your kind will all be at risk." Lucy stood a moment in thought. "And I think you're right. He must be behind these new diclonius."

They stood again in silence, staring at the river and the crimson leaves of the many maple trees that were changing with the seasons. "Lucy," Kohta said quietly, breaking the silence, "I'm glad you came to visit us. I know Yuka and I haven't been back to Kaede House to visit for some time, and we have missed the three of you."

"You've been busy with raising a family," Lucy conceded. "And I've been busy running getting a new business on its feet." Lucy smiled and gave Kohta a quick hug. "You've changed so much in the last six months; but not all for the better." Lucy frowned at the goatee that Kohta had been growing since his daughter had been born. She reached up and gave it a sharp tug while Kohta yelped in protest. "The fur on your face just doesn't look good on you Kohta. You really ought to shave it."

"I guess that's just one more thing you and Yuka can find in common," said Kohta, rubbing his chin. "She's threatened to remove it herself with a pair of pliers while I'm asleep."

Lucy could not help but smile at the thought. She did not laugh though. "Shouldn't we be getting back? I'm certain Yuka is going to need help with dinner."

"Nana and Mayu are there to help out," said Kohta. "But she will be unhappy if we are late."

"Are you sure having the three of us stay overnight is not too much of a bother, Kohta?"

Kohta patted Lucy on the back reassuringly. "Don't worry about it. You're family after all, and family sticks together and does favors for each other in times of need."

-:-:-

Director Kakuzawa slowly read through the reports that Arakawa had delivered to him, and he could feel his blood pressure rising with each line. "Arakawa, this is unacceptable."

Arakawa trembled and wrung her hands in anxiety. She was getting a lot thinner and she was actually starting to develop a few gray hairs at the temples from her constant stress; and having to carry a foreign child that had spread Pandora's Box to her while it was in her womb had also kept Arakawa in a constant state of despair. Her current dilemma was not helping her situation either. "I'm sorry Director, but we are still at a loss as to explain why so many of the fetuses are dying. For some reason test group B has already produced nearly ten healthy queens while those in test group A are either miscarrying their fetus within a month or giving birth to impure queens. We euthanized the entire first batch after birth, as per your orders, and that is what the autopsies of the infants confirmed."

Director Kakuzawa continued reading through the reports. "I notice we have not produced any males yet. Do you have any particular reason why?"

"No sir. The current theories are that diclonius are more like social insects than we originally thought. Perhaps kings are few in number and are meant to seize control of a harem of queens who produce mostly silpelit workers. It would suggest a caste division somewhat akin to a cross between monkeys and hornets. Oh, and their potential for telepathy increases the more there are in close proximity."

Kakuzawa cocked one eyebrow in surprise. "How do you know this?"

"The remaining silpelits that were a result of infection spread by Lucy have complained about the 'noise' that the new diclonius descended from Lucy are causing. Apparently the progeny of the two queens don't seem to like each other very much."

"It would make sense considering that ant colonies are compelled to destroy one another over resources. Now, Arakawa, did you follow the parameters of the experiments exactly as I described them? It may give us a clue as to what went wrong."

"Test group A was all sired by non-infected fathers," began Arakawa, "this was the group that either miscarried or gave birth to impure queens that have a reduced Pineal gland. It is possible that the offspring of the impure queens may not even be able to produce vectors. Test group B who were sired by infected fathers and they all gave birth to queens. This would imply that the diclonius are more separated from us than was originally thought. However, a father who carries Pandora's Box through infection eliminates the impurities in his diclonius offspring."

Kakuzawa set the reports back on his desk and fixed Arakawa with a hard stare. "Now that we know the effects of their reproduction it is time to start over. I want the next batch of reproducers ready for artificial implantation within the month. However, you must only make enough embryos to implant in the surrogates who are ready for another pregnancy. Human beings are not an easy resource to come by and I will not risk loosing my surrogates because of overtaxing them."

"Yes sir," Arakawa glanced at the floor. "The ones who miscarried should be ready by now, but the ones who carried a child to full term need a few more months to rest before another pregnancy…myself included."

Kakuzawa nodded in agreement. "You will not carry another queen until the rest of the carriers are ready. You have earned at least that." As Arakawa turned to leave Kakuzawa cleared his throat. "Before you are implanted with another embryo, have the medical staff collect a few of your eggs. I understand that you were able to positively confirm that the surrogate mothers were infected by Pandora's Box through the fetus's they carried. While I have no use for the week genes of these foolish surrogates, your intelligence is a trait that the new master race of diclonius will benefit from. As soon as males are produced we will grow your offspring. I may even let you carry one of your own children."

Arakawa gulped and backed away. "Th-thank you sir!" she squeaked. She wasn't sure if she should take this order as a compliment, or if she should feel creeped out by the callousness of the Director's casual way of treating eugenics. Arakawa quickly left the office as Kakuzawa returned to his bay windows so he could gaze at the ocean and contemplate his plans for the new world that would soon be his.

Director Kakuzawa knew in his heart that he was doing the right thing. After all, humankind had already proven that they were foolish destructive beings with an inborn desire to destroy themselves. But the diclonius, _they_ were the true survivors. Kakuzawa had read the records his ancestors had made when their diclonism was still pure, and everything he read suggested that the diclonius hive mind would _always_ work toward the greater good of the species. Such a world, where everyone shared one another's thoughts, desires, and emotions…in such a world there would be no strife as there would no longer be any misunderstandings; no individual concerns to cause the selfishness and greed that so often drove the leaders of the human race to wage petty wars. With the entire world sharing one mind and having one goal, survival, the everlasting reign of the diclonius would be assured.

Kakuzawa could not help but smile wistfully at the thought. Once the diclonius were set up in their rightful place as the sole sentient species of this world all war, strife, anger, jealousy…every negative emotion and action associated with individual concerns would be a thing of the past. _Homo sapiens_ reign would come to its inevitable end, and _Homo sapiens diclonius_ would remember him as a hero for all time.

-:-:-

_Kohta threw the bones from the cat he had been gnawing on back into the fire. He shook his head sadly as everyone gathered waited for him to continue his tale._

"_So, what happens next, Mister Kohta?" Rebecca asked curiously. "Didn't you and Yuka have any more children after that?"_

"_Yes, we had another daughter," said Kohta. He sighed tremendously and took a few moments to gather his thoughts. "Our lives began to change significantly after she was born, and not all the changes were good."_

-:-:-

Kohta sat staring out of the windows of the train as it neared Kamakura. It was not a long train ride from Tokyo to Kamakura, only about forty-five minutes, but Kohta still felt uncomfortable on trains. Ever since that incident from his childhood, the light rails made him feel creepy and edgy.

"Hey Papa, when are we going to get there?" asked Kanae for what was probably the eighth time in the last fifteen minutes. She had greatly enjoyed herself at first on train rides, but became bored so easily. Kanae, like many four year olds, had a great sense of adventure but a rather short attention span.

"We'll be there soon Kanae," said Kohta, feeling a little exasperated with his bouncy, energetic daughter. "Try to be like your sister. She's just sitting there being quiet."

Kohta glanced at his other daughter, Nyu. When she had been born they really couldn't think of a more appropriate name for her. Her pink hair and cat-ear horns had reminded them so much of the girl they had found on the beach. However, her developing personality could not have been any more different. Nyu always seemed to be lost in thought. She had become rather serious, stubborn, and withdrawn. A perfectionist to a fault, she had demonstrated that she had excellent problem solving abilities and was quite clever. However, she rarely related to anybody and seemed to have trouble expressing empathy for anybody. This had gotten her and Kanae in trouble a few times as she seemed to be able to talk her sister into doing all sorts of naughty deeds, yet she never seemed to care if she or Kanae got in trouble. Kohta had wondered about his daughter ever since she was born. She was only two years old, yet was as physically and mentally developed as her older sister. Kohta had no doubt in his mind that his child was indeed one of the silpelits that were popping up everywhere nowadays. Come to think of it, he hadn't seen a human child under the age of three in almost a year now.

"I still can't believe we won't be able to stay at Kaede House," said Yuka, bringing Kohta out of his thoughts. "Six month reservations for the Inn and a three hour wait for dining in the restaurant! I can't wait to see what Lucy did wit the place!"

The train arrived on time at the station and Kohta was able to quickly hire a taxi to take them to Kaede House. The cabby could not help but comment that he and his wife had been planning a romantic getaway at the place for months, and that as a bed-and-breakfast the service and congeniality of the staff was unsurpassed.

As the taxi dropped them off Kohta could not help but whistle in disbelief as they entered the gates. The place had never looked so…cultured. It was the only word Kohta could use to describe the place. Lucy had indeed turned the Inn into a reminder of bygone days and cherished traditions, the remnants of traditional culture that was nearly gone but not forgotten. The staff was all dressed in traditional nineteenth century garb, there were no visible power lines leading to or from the Inn, the grounds were well tended, and there was even a koi pond with an antique looking wooden bridge over it where a dirt path used to stand. Kohta could see instantly why the place had become so popular, especially with the older generation. It had become a place that seemed to defy the modern change that caused everyone to be in one big damn hurry all the time.

As Kohta entered the front doors he was instantly greeted with the sight of a familiar face. "Mayu, it is good to see you!"

Mayu looked up from her record books and immediately rushed to Kohta and Yuka. "Hey, we haven't seen you two here in almost a year!" exclaimed Mayu as she rushed to hug her family. "And is this can't be little Kanae and Nyu! My goodness but look how big you're getting!"

"Aunt Mayu," cried Kanae joyously as she was lifted into the air. Mayu had certainly changed herself as well over the years. At twenty years old she no longer looked like the frightened teenager that Kohta had first rescued. She looked older, more mature, more self assured, and frankly, a lot prettier than Kohta could remember.

"And how is little Nyu," asked Mayu as she bent down to eye level with Nyu and gave her the biggest smile possible. Nyu scooted behind Yuka's skirt and peered out at Mayu timidly. "She still doesn't interact with people very well, does she?"

"No, she's always been a little shy," said Yuka. "Hey, where's Nana and Lucy? I want to say hello to them as well."

"Nana is in the kitchens supervising the chefs," replied Mayu. "Lucy…is having a little talk with one of the junior staff outside. It was something kind of serious."

As Yuka, Kanae, and Nyu went to say hello to Nana, Kohta made his way to the back to see Lucy. Even before could open the doors he could hear two people arguing in the rear common area. He quickly exited the Inn to see what was going on.

"Come on Miss Lucy, I don't see why I'm getting in trouble for this!" a young woman who looked to be about sixteen and dressed as one of the staff was gesturing wildly as a very familiar figure stood with her arms folded, watching almost impassively.

"You're getting in trouble because you keep breaking the rules," said Lucy calmly. "When you were hired you signed a contact agreeing to your terms of employment. Two of those terms were that you would only take your breaks during your authorized schedule, and the other was that there was to be no smoking on the grounds. This is twice I have caught you not only taking an unauthorized break, but that I have also caught you smoking cigarettes. The rest of the staff has been complaining about someone leaving cigarette butts all over the place and I think I have my culprit."

The young staff member just glared at Lucy. "What are you going to do about it? You can't fire me; you're way too busy and you need everyone you can get!"

"I wasn't planning on firing you," said Lucy, "but you are getting a written warning that's going into your files."

"A piece of paper that may never see the light of day again…is that supposed to intimidate me?"

Lucy pursed her lips and frowned. "No I suppose that would not intimidate you into obeying the rules. However, your mother seems to think that you are a perfect little angel and it would be a shame if I had to call your parents and inform them of your tobacco habit."

That threat hit home. "You wouldn't dare?!"

'Try me."

The staff member held up her hands in a gesture of surrender. "Alright, alright, I'll stop smoking on the grounds!"

"Good. Now, you still have to finish your work before your shift is over, and this little chat ate up quite a bit of your time, so I suggest you get back to work immediately."

As the junior staff member brushed past Kohta he could distinctly hear the words 'fascist bitch' being muttered under her breath.

Lucy shook her head in disgust. "I've had more problems with her than the rest of the staff put together," she said as she moved to greet Kohta.

"It's nice to see you too, Lucy," said Kohta as he embraced his friend. "I can't believe what you've done with the place!"

"It really fixed up well, once we got started," Lucy looked suspiciously at Kohta for a moment. "But you really came here to talk to me about the current silpelit crisis, didn't you?"

Kohta just stared in shock. "How did you…?"

"Kanae overheard you and Yuka before you left home this morning. She told me on the way over. Kohta, we have a lot to discuss."

…

Because they had devoted almost the entire Inn over to their business, Lucy Nana and Mayu no longer lived at Kaede House. Instead Lucy had rented a modest sized apartment only a few blocks away and the three of them lived there. Lucy walked with Kohta and did her best to quiet his fears. For almost an hour they visited some of the places that had come to mean the most to them.

"I'm sure you are wondering what is going to happen to humanity if this keeps up," said Lucy. "I wonder myself."

"Lucy, you're connected to all their minds; surely the populace must know something about how they all came to be."

Lucy halted in her tracks and shuddered. "They are growing restless Kohta. They know that their parents are wondering why the world is suddenly only giving birth to diclonius children. They know your kind is afraid and that is making a lot of them feel empowered." Lucy rubbed her arms and stared at the sidewalk "I have been trying to quiet them, to convince them they have nothing to fear. They listen to me, but they don't agree with me. I found out a while ago that I can make them decide what they want to do, impose my will over their own. They can function normally without my mind being connected to theirs, but what they want to do depends on what I want. They've accepted my will, but they are fighting against it. I suspect that if their true queen were to emerge and take control of their minds I would be powerless to stop them."

"Powerless to stop them from doing what Lucy?" asked Kohta.

"From killing their parent species," Lucy replied. She stopped dead in her tracks and Kohta felt his heart sink into his stomach.

"Why would they want to kill us?" gasped Kohta.

"I don't know. Someone introduced the idea into the Mind that they are going to rescue the humans from themselves by killing them all. The thoughts they share with one another are random, incoherent, and paranoid. Some of them feel completely insane, and their voices seem to be spreading the fastest. Anger, fear, jealousy, paranoia…these emotions that they share seem to be getting out of control."

"I…I had no idea," stammered Kohta. "Are…are all the diclonius that emotionally unstable?"

"Without question," said Lucy. "I myself should be included in that category. You've seen firsthand what happens when we let our emotions get out of control."

He and Lucy just stood there in silence until Kohta's cell phone rang. With a shout of surprise he pulled it from is belt and fumbled to get it open.

It was Yuka. "Kohta, you have to get to the apartment right now! There is a news report that you and Lucy have to see!"

"I heard what she said," said Lucy. "Come on our place is only about five minutes from here." As the two friends rushed to the apartment Lucy could not help but wonder why Nyu had not informed her of what was going on.

…

Kohta and Lucy burst into the apartment and immediately scrambled to the TV set. "Nana should be along any minute," gasped Lucy, slightly out of breath. "I told her to come home almost immediately."

"Shhh, this is important!" hissed Yuka.

"And we can now confirm that in the last month there have been no non-diclonius children born in the country of Japan," continued the anchorman on the evening news. "The latest surveys from hospitals all over the world have suggested that non-diclonius humans now only account for one in every million births. Scientists and reproduction specialists have come to the agreement that if some means of getting humans to give birth to humans is not found, the world could be entirely replaced by diclonius within the next generation.

"While many of the worlds countries are trying to find voluntary ways to ensure the continuing survival of the human race, Japan itself is now considering forcing mandatory population control measures to combat this crisis. Parliament will decide on the best course of action to…"

"They can't do that, can they?" asked Yuka, a note of panic in her voice. "They can't force the citizens of Japan submit to all sorts of tests and experiments!"

"Given the fact that there are no more human children being born, they may have no other choice," said Lucy. She gritted her teeth and gripped her head as a moan of agony escaped her lips. She fell over on the ground and curled into a fetal position as Kohta and Yuka rushed to her side.

"Lucy, what is it? What's wrong?"

"It's the hive mind," seethed Lucy through clenched teeth. "They saw the report and the older ones think they are going to be rounded up and exterminated. They are calling for the heads of the parent generation. It's taking everything I have to stop them."

The door to the apartment burst open and Nana stumbled in rubbing her skull. "Lucy, I wish you would find a more gentle way to tell me you are in distress. That seriously hurt!"

Lucy propped herself up on her hands and knees and began shaking like a sick dog. "We have to leave Japan. We can't stay in this country."

"Why? What's going on Lucy?"

"Something horrible is looming on the horizon. The hive mind here in Japan is fighting back against me. They say they are going to strike as soon as they get their orders from their true queen."

"My family has a few contacts in the United States," said Yuka. "I think it's best to put an ocean between us and Japan right now."

"Do you really think leaving Japan is going to be necessary?" asked Nana, a tone of pleading in her voice.

Lucy shuddered as another wave of anger and the desire to kill that was not hers washed over her. "Yes, we have to leave," said Lucy firmly. "When the storm hits, I suspect it's going to hit hardest here…"


	5. Armageddon

Deep within the laboratories of the diclonius research facility Chief of Research Arakawa was watching intently as the computer monitors of her assistants displayed their work. Ever since that first batch of diclonius had so many miscarriages over six years ago she had become obsessed with finding out a reason. Director Kakuzawa had told her to drop the issue; diclonius too weak to survive to term were not his concern. But Arakawa could not let this puzzle go unsolved. Within the last few months the research facility had made wondrous advances in artificial wombs that would finally allow her to study these faulty embryos that seemed to die off so rapidly when they were fertilized by a father who had not been exposed to Pandora's Box.

Arakawa currently had two of these little projects running. The other was having a few of her assistants doing the rather tedious job of sorting out sperm from an infected donor. No male diclonius had been produced yet and Director Kakuzawa was growing very impatient. He was insistent that they sort all of the Y-chromosome sperm from the X- chromosome sperm from at least three donors in order to get a percentage of just how many kings a man infected by Pandora's Box should be able to produce. The results had come back less than a week ago, but Arakawa needed to know what was causing the miscarriages before she presented her findings to the Director. She knew that the two problems of miscarriage and no males being produced had to be linked somehow.

"Chief Arakawa, I think you need to take a look at this!" one of the lab techs called across the room.

Arakawa strolled across the lab and looked over the tech's shoulder. "What have you found?"

"We were starting to notice some anomalies in the fetuses that were produced from confirmed Y-chromo sperm. As you are probably already aware, all vertebrate embryos start out gender neutral. With humans we begin to develop into either male or female at around four months of age in the womb."

"Yes, most people are aware of this fact," said Arakawa coolly. "But please, what is it you needed to me to see?"

The lab tech brought up a video recording of a developing fetus. "We have been monitoring changes that occur as the Y chromosome begins to shape the fetus internally. One of the things we watch is white blood cell count. Look at this."

Arakawa watched as the white blood cells in a sample taken from the fetus began attacking healthy red blood cells as well as the surrounding tissue. "Are all the fetuses like this?" she asked, her voice trembling.

"No ma'am, only the developing males are showing this kind of problem."

"Then my worst fears have been confirmed," said Arakawa, suddenly turning very white. "Burn a copy of this onto a hard disk. The director has to see this now!"

Arakawa waited several tense minutes as the video results were transferred to a compact disk. Once she had the hard copy in her hand Arakawa took off at a full run to Director Kakuzawa's office.

…

Director Kakuzawa was reading an annual report from one of his overseas agents. When the next batch of diclonius queens had been produced he had immediately begun distributing them worldwide to parents willing to adopt 'special needs children'. However, he kept a very close eye on his queens and demanded monthly reports on their general health as well as their social skills and development of their vectors. The first batch was approaching six years old and a few had already begun to display their vectors. Soon these queens that were seeded around the world would take command of the hive mind and lead the massive armies of silpelits to rise against their inferior human predecessors.

Kakuzawa looked up from his report in annoyance as Arakawa burst into his office and rushed to his desk carrying a disk. She was breathing rapidly and looked to be in a state of distress. "Director," she puffed, "we have…a serious…problem!"

Normally Director Kakuzawa would have had Arakawa removed to her chambers, but there was a level of panic in her eyes that surpassed her shock and horror when he had shot her so many years ago. "What is it, Arakawa?"

"Diclonism kills human males!" Arakawa burst out. She dropped the disk onto Kakuzawa's desk and leaned over, rubbing the stitch that had developed in her side.

Director Kakuzawa inserted the disk into his computers CD drive and brought up the files that Arakawa had deemed so important. He watched in fascination as a fetus's developing immune system turned on itself; and suddenly felt his temper rise as he read the results of the sperm separation that had confirmed that the fathers carrying Pandora's Box were no longer able to produce male offspring.

"How is this possible?" he growled. "It makes no sense from either an evolutionary standpoint or a historical standpoint! The genes of evolving beings do not deny them the ability to reproduce their own kind! It is against all the laws of nature! My ancient and glorious ancestors produced males, why can't our modern queens do the same?!"

"I don't know sir," Arakawa squeaked. "But perhaps the problem lies with…"

"I don't want your excuses, Arakawa!" shrieked Kakuzawa. "What I want is for you to fix this problem, and fix it now! Now get the hell out of my office and do not show your face in here again until you have some means of producing a male diclonius!"

Arakawa tripped over her own feet in her haste to get out of Director Kakuzawa's office. She had never seen him so angry. As she burst out of his office Kakuzawa began pacing back and forth like a caged animal. "Her findings are flawed," he muttered to himself. "There is no way this is correct. She must be deliberately contaminating her samples in order to get me to believe that my project is doomed to fail!" That thought made Kakuzawa stop in his tracks and he could not get that idea out of his head. "They're all against me! Kurama tried to defy my orders and halt my ascension to divinity and my own son tried to set himself up in my place. None of them want to see the world become as it was meant to! Well I'll show them. I'll show them all that this world was meant to be ruled by the diclonius and they were meant to be ruled by me!"

Kakuzawa left his office and made his way to the storage chambers where his diclonius test subjects were kept in isolation.

…

Persephone hung serenely from the restraint frame in the dark dungeon near the heart of the research facility. She had lost track of how long she had been kept there; the only human interaction she received were the doctors who poked and prodded and humiliated her.

Observation of Persephone had not revealed any odd changes in her. She looked quiet and almost non-threatening; hanging there so still with her helmet blocking her features. But Persephone had been given a lot of time to think about her situation and the people she had grown to hate, and something had festered in the back of her mind. More than eight years of being kept in this dark cell with little to no human contact for months on end, other than the staff that fed her and removed her wastes, had taken its toll on the mind of the queen.

She looked up as a familiar figure entered the cell. She was not surprised to see Director Kakuzawa. The man often came to visit her and tell her of his plans. She hated him though. He was the cause of her imprisonment and Persephone longed for the pleasure of killing him personally. "What do you want?" She rasped; her voice hoarse from years of not being used.

"What are you, Persephone," asked Kakuzawa. His hands were trembling and he had a crazed look to his eyes. "What makes you different from my ancestors? Why do your genes kill males when the genes of my ancestors produced men with no difficulty?"

"Why are you asking me?" hissed Persephone. "You're the scientist, you should have an answer."

"But I don't," growled Kakuzawa. He pulled his wig off to reveal his two stubby vestigial horns. Persephone could have laughed out loud. Here was a fallen God reduced to the level of one of the apes whose torment would be brought to an end. Persephone knew that he could be a useful tool in releasing her though, especially in his disturbed emotional state.

"Perhaps you hold the key to producing a male of our kind," whispered Persephone. "Release me from my bonds, and we will produce such an heir together." Persephone worked very hard to keep her voice as flat and business like as possible. She held her breath, waiting for Kakuzawa's response.

"Yes, why did I not see it before? The key was within me all along!" Kakuzawa regarded Persephone coldly. "I have your assurance of cooperation once I release you?"

Persephone bowed her head. "My king…my concern is only for the continued survival of our kind. What would I gain if I allowed our only hope to be destroyed?"

Kakuzawa merely gave a tight one sided smile and turned to leave. Persephone grinned like a Cheshire cat underneath her helmet. The humans were such gullible fools. She waited for the restraint helmet to be deactivated.

…

In the control room that monitored Persephone's cell, Kakuzawa dismissed the guards on duty and began entering the codes for her neural restraints. The same code would work for all the silpelit chambers as well. It was time to purge his current faithless and disloyal staff.

Persephone became aware of the restraints being removed almost immediately. There was a doctor nearby preparing to take a blood test to make sure Persephone did not have any illness that could be transmitted to the Director. Persephone knew the doctor had to be punished for even thinking of doing such a thing to her. She lashed out with one of her vectors and cleanly sliced the man's head off.

The guard who was supposed to be watching Persephone at all times while doctors and lab technicians were present saw the crimson spray and the headless body slump to the ground. He pulled his weapon and backed away nervously. He had been employed at the facility for many years and had become so complacent around this captive that the possibility of her actually breaking free of her restraints had all but left his mind. He watched in horror as she sliced open her straight jacket and slid to the floor. She stood there facing him, unconcerned about her resulting nudity and still looking almost non-threatening with her face hidden by that helmet.

With a sudden cracking sound the helmet seemed to just explode as Persephone pulverized it with her vectors and sent shrapnel flying in all directions. One jagged chunk of the helmet caught the hapless guard in the throat. He clutched at the wound and fell to the ground. Persephone watched with mild curiosity as the guard bled to death on the floor. Once she could be sure the man was dead Persephone reached up to touch her own face. She had not had that restraint helmet removed since it was put on, except under sedation when they took samples of her brain tissue and she relished the ability to touch her own face again.

Persephone stepped over to the beheaded doctor and touched the blood that was now spreading across the floor. It felt slick and warm between her fingers and she could tell that this man must have very powerful blood to be able to torment a captive God such as herself. She pressed her palms flat into the puddle and wiped the man's blood across her forearms, gaining his power that he had over her in the process. She rose to her feet and for the first time in years she could feel her children's presence. She touched those captive minds within the facility that had descended from her and gave them their first order. _**Kill them all! **_

-:-:-

Across the Pacific Ocean, in the city of Los Angeles, Lucy was helping the rest of her family to unpack their belongings. Yuka's family had been kind enough to put them up in a house that belonged to a business contact, and it felt good to Lucy to be living under the same roof with Kohta and Yuka again. The last three months had been bliss.

In one of her boxes Lucy spied the small wooden music box that Kohta had left behind when he and Yuka had moved out. She had been meaning to return it, but had found herself becoming quite attached to it. She set it on the dresser that had been placed in her room and opened it, longing to hear the solemn tune it played. She was feeling homesick and it reminded her of happier times.

"Oh, I was wondering what had happened to that music box," said Kohta as he passed Lucy's room carrying a box. He looked around at the clear windows, the swinging door, and the bed that sat on legs and a box spring instead of securely on the floor. "It's a lot different here than it is back home, isn't it?"

"The living conditions aren't so bad," said Lucy as she began loading her books into her bookshelf. "It's the food that I'm having trouble adjusting to. Honestly, are Americans even capable of eating anything that hasn't been soaking in its own grease all day?"

Kohta grinned and returned to carrying boxes to the different room. Lucy continued to unpack until she heard the front door open and close. "Mayu, Nana, how was your first day at work?" Kohta called out. Nana and Mayu quickly made their way to their room to change out of their Gold's Gym employee uniforms.

"Terrible," Mayu shouted, just loud enough to be heard through the walls. "The people here have no sense of manners or decency. I think that if I had one more overweight, excessively hairy, smelly _gorilla_ make a pass at me I would have run out screaming!"

"It wasn't that bad," said Nana. "The people in this country seem friendly enough. I got a few weird looks though."

Lucy shook her head and sighed. She missed the Inn and she missed Japan. The people back home were, for the most part, very polite and had a good sense of self restraint. Here, people just seamed to speak whatever was on their mind.

As Lucy continued to unpack her books a presence, stronger than anything she had ever felt before, flared up in the hive mind. Control of the world's silpelit population was immediately wrenched from her. That presence; that willful, deranged, and deeply disturbed presence reached out and touched her with an almost lover-like caress. Lucy dropped to her knees and tried to force that entity's touch out of her mind. After a few moments she became aware of two things; first that Kohta was gently shaking her, calling her name over and over, and second that Nana was screaming in the other room. Lucy quickly reached out to Nana and pulled her into a mental embrace, shielding her from the outside assault on her mind. Nana was, after all, in a strange way, Lucy's child.

Lucy got up and made her way into Nana and Mayu's bedroom, Kohta following close behind, asking her what was happening. Nana was laying on the floor sobbing as Mayu tried to comfort her. "She killed them!" Nana cried through her tears. "My sisters who were left at the facility, your daughters Lucy, she had them all killed!"

Lucy could feel it too, now. Those silpelits that she had produced, the few that were still under restraint at that facility, they had for a moment cried out in pain and terror before their voices were silenced.

"Their true queen is awake," said Lucy. "She has control of her children now." A sudden thought struck Lucy. She grabbed Kohta's shirt and began shaking him. "Where are Yuka, Kanae and Nyu?!" she shouted. "Where did they go?!"

"They went grocery shopping. Why? What's the matter Lucy?"

Lucy pushed Kohta aside and rushed to get her shoes and sweater. "Kohta, you and Nana need to come with me right now! Yuka and Kanae are in danger! Nyu may be ordered to kill them at any moment!"

Kohta's face went as pale as the walls of a hospital room as understanding hit him. He too rushed to get himself ready. "Mayu, stay here and lock the doors after we leave! If Nyu returns home without any of us, don't let her in!"

Silently praying they would not be too late, Kohta, Lucy, and Nana rushed out of their house and ran off in the direction of the supermarket where Yuka was shopping with her daughters.

-:-:-

Persephone went from chamber to chamber within the research facility. She encountered guards everywhere, but their efforts at survival were useless. She blocked their bullets as easily as she could swat away flies, and she killed the guards with as little thought as the said insects. It was the doctors and scientists she was most interested in finding and her faithful silpelits dutifully brought them to her alive and kicking. They had been the ones who had tormented her, they had been the ones to restrain the God and they were the ones whose powers and strength she would gain by killing them personally. They were the ones who would die slowly. She smiled malevolently as her daughters brought her the next victim.

Director Kakuzawa fought hard against the grip of the silpelits. The anger on his face was something that Persephone knew she would treasure forever. "You lied to me!" he thundered. The look of indignation on his face was nicely offset by the two stubby horns protruding from his bald head. Persephone made no sound, and her expression did not change. She merely extended her vectors out to the very upset Director…

…

Arakawa huddled behind a computer consol as the screams came closer. She could easily guess that Director Kakuzawa had finally snapped. All diclonius seemed to reach a breaking point after a specific event triggered a major emotional response. Apparently, the Director was no different.

Arakawa knew she had to try to find someplace to escape to, but she could not think of anywhere to run. She was certain that the same mass murder would be going on outside the facility that was occurring within it. No place on earth would be safe from these murderous freaks now. Soft footsteps came into the lab where she was hidden. Arakawa tried to make herself seem as small as possible in the hopes that the diclonius would not find her. They did.

Two silpelits, both completely nude as they were when they had been released, spied her as they searched the room. Without saying a word they used their vectors to drag Arakawa from her hiding place and frog-marched her to the lower levels where the diclonius samples were kept in isolation. As she was dragged into one chamber, Arakawa was greeted with the most horrifying sight that she had ever seen.

Persephone was kneeling next to the body of Director Kakuzawa. She was covered from head to foot in blood that she had smeared over herself, and she had the Director's still quivering heart pressed to her lips, deeply drinking his blood as if it were a fine wine. Arakawa gagged at the sight of Persephone's throat pulsating as she swallowed and the dark blood poured from the corners of her lips. It was all Arakawa could do to keep from vomiting.

When she was finished, Persephone dropped the heart next to Kakuzawa's cooling body and rose to her feet. She sharply sucked in a breath of air through her teeth and threw her head back in ecstasy. "I can feel his power coursing through me," she hissed. "At last, my immortality has been assured." She turned to regard Arakawa and a broad, unpleasant smile spread across her face. "You're the one who made Pandora's Box," said Persephone. "You were the one who told me of my sister, Lucy. You were also the one who spoke kind words to me. Thank you."

Arakawa stood rooted to the spot, shaking violently and unable to move. "Y-you're welcome!" she stammered, unsure of what else to say. "But you have to stop this! You have to read the reports on the Director's desk. The diclonius have no way of reproducing their own kind. If you destroy the humans all over the world, you will follow soon after us."

Persephone threw back her head and cackled. "I am Persephone, the Goddess of the Underworld and the Messiah of Death! The survival of our races is mine to dictate as I please!" She regarded Kakuzawa's body and chuckled coldly. "Prometheus here gave my stolen fire to mankind. He would have made that decision in my place. Unfortunately for him, his organs will not grow back tonight."

Arakawa shook he head in disbelief. She knew that the diclonius typically developed emotional problems, and that some did experience full blown psychopathic tendencies, but she didn't have any idea that a diclonius's mind could be reduced to _this_! The combination of existing emotional instability coupled with years of near-sensory deprivation and unnecessary brain surgery had turned Persephone's mind into something no longer human. "Listen to yourself!" cried Arakawa. "You're unwell, you need help! I can get it for you!"

Persephone simply smiled and stepped closer to Arakawa, pulling her into a soft embrace. "You have served me well, even if you did not realize it. I am a kind God, and am willing to reward all those who serve me." Persephone gently kissed Arakawa's lips and Arakawa trembled at that unclean touch. "You will have the privilege of nourishing my children for the conflict to come." Persephone turned and began walking out of the chamber. Before she left she gave one telepathic order to her dozen or so silpelit daughters that now surrounded Arakawa. _**Eat her. Her life force will make you powerful. **_Arakawa screamed as the silpelits fell upon her like a swarm of ravenous rats.

…

As Persephone entered Director Kakuzawa's luxurious private office she had to block her eyes from the glare of the bright sun shining through the enormous windows. She had not seen the sun in eight years. Existing in that dark cell for the better part of a decade had taken its toll on her eyesight and Persephone felt physically pained by the assault of light on her eyes. She staggered out of the room quickly. Persephone knew she would have to get her children to paint the windows black for her. Otherwise it would make an excellent throne room.

Persephone had decided that it was time to begin the end as soon as she had been released. Before her daughters killed every last human being on earth, there was one person she desired to see face to face. _**Find my half-sister, Lucy. Bring her home to me, **_she commanded the hive. _**The humans are irrelevant, the humans are a disease. Bring about their total extinction! Kill every damned last one of them! **_

-:-:-

Yuka could not help but notice that her daughter Nyu was acting a bit strangely. She had become even quieter than usual and seemed to be staring off into space. But then, Nyu's behavior had always been a little odd. As Yuka left the supermarket with Nyu and Kanae, she heard a familiar voice cry out to her from the parking lot.

"Yuka, Kanae! Get away from Nyu before it is too late!" Kohta came rushing to the store front with Lucy and Nana close behind.

"Kohta, what are you doing here?" asked Yuka. "What is going on?"

Across the street people began screaming. Nearly every person in the shopping area had a diclonius daughter, and their children were now slicing them to pieces left and right.

Yuka bent down and grasped Nyu's shoulders. "Nyu! You mustn't listen to them! Look at me, I am your mother! Nyu, I love y...!" Yuka could not finish her sentence. With one swift motion her head was twisted off and bright arterial blood sprayed over Nyu and Kanae.

Kanae just stared in shock as Nyu turned to face her. Nyu's eyes were as blank and impassive as a sheet of paper. Before Nyu could strike, Lucy rushed forward and used her vectors to lift Nyu off her feet and throw her as far as she could. Nyu used her vectors to brace herself and landed softly in the middle of a group of horrified onlookers that she immediately cut to pieces. Without a backwards glance she walked up the street and was gone, killing as she went.

Kohta rushed to the body of his wife. He took her lifeless form into his arms and howled in grief. Kanae just stood there trembling as her mother's blood dripped from her face and clothes. Lucy rushed over to the pair as Nana just watched in horror as her fellow silpelits killed any human who came within reach. Lucy immediately checked Kanae over.

"Kanae, are you hurt, are you alright?" Kanae just stood there, her mouth moving silently as tears began tracing rivers through the red stains on her cheeks. Seeing that Kanae was unhurt, Lucy turned her attention to Kohta. "Kohta, there will be a time for grief later!" said Lucy as she placed on hand on his shoulder. "But right now we need to get away from the cities. The diclonius population is going to kill everyone and will not hesitate to kill you, your daughter, and Mayu!"

"You don't care about that, Lucy," sobbed Kohta. "I'm sure you would be happier if all humans were…"

Lucy forcefully dragged Kohta to his feet with her vectors and backhanded him hard across the face. "Get a grip Kohta!" she shouted into his face. "Letting your daughter get killed is going to be a rather pathetic way of honoring your wife's memory!" Both she and Kohta turned as a rumbling sound filled the air. In the line of skyscrapers that filled the Los Angeles horizon one building suddenly listed to its side and collapsed into another building near it. Explosions cold be heard much closer and a few cars flew over the roofs of nearby buildings. "Kohta, its time to go, now!"

…

They quickly returned to the house to gather Mayu and a few supplies that would come in handy. Lucy was completely silent as she hurried to stuff a few items into a backpack. She hesitated for a moment over the music box, and decided to take it. As she stuffed it into her bag Nana burst into her room. "Lucy, what are you going to do? The queen is having her daughters look for…"

"I know, Nana!" Lucy snapped. She had felt it too, and it surprised her when Nyu had ignored her. They were looking for her specifically, and Lucy was in no hurry to find out why.

Kohta and Mayu poked their heads into the room. "We're ready to go when you are, Lucy." Lucy felt relieved that Kohta was focused on survival. There would be time to grieve for Yuka and Nyu later.

Before Lucy could reply a horrible crashing sound reverberated through the house and a car fell through the roof into the living room. The mangled remains of the occupants began dripping onto the floor. "They must have figured out that cars make handy projectiles," Lucy muttered to herself. "It's time to go."

They quickly made their way onto the streets and Lucy took a minute to get her bearings. "I figured it would be a good idea to head northeast if something like this ever happened," said Lucy. "We need to get to the Interstate 15 and follow it from there. Who knows what is going to be encountered after that. There is no real guarantee of survival at this point."

…

It was several hours before they reached the inner city where they could easily get to the I-15 junction. All the while they had to dodge hoards of silpelits who were killing anyone who came within reach. The silpelits were tearing down office buildings and skyscrapers by acting together and using their vectors to rip out as much of the supporting structure as possible. Kohta watched, fascinated as a group of more than three dozen silpelits began swarming up the side of one building, so insect-like in their grouping and coordination. They used their vectors to tear away one side of the building with an efficiency that rivaled ants dismembering a grasshopper, and leapt away as the building collapsed to that side. They were also using any heavy object within reach; cars, masonry, pieces of broken glass and rebar, as deadly projectiles that they hurled in all directions.

Lucy raised her hand to halt the others. The sounds of several airplanes could be heard over the exploding automobiles and buildings crumbling under the onslaught. From the north several F-22 Raptors screamed over the horizon. "Huh, it looks like the military is intervening," said Kohta. He looked up and shielded his eyes so he could watch the jets.

Nana, on the other hand, could sense the pilots and that made her panic. "Those are diclonius piloting those fighters," she gasped. "We have to get out of here!"

Lucy shook her head in disbelief. Where the hell did the silpelits get fighter jets from, and how did they know how to fly them? Lucy watched in horror as the leader of this wing of fighters tried to fly through the buildings, and messed up her trajectory. The fighter's starboard wing clipped a building and spun the jet out of control. Lucy watched in horror as the jet crashed into a building they were standing under and it's entire payload exploded. Mayu, Kanae, and Nana had managed to get away, but Kohta was not so lucky. Huge chunks of the building came crashing down on top of him.

"Kohta!" Lucy screamed. She immediately rushed to the pile of rubble and began flinging pieces of debris aside. Nana quickly rushed to join her. Together they managed to get Kohta mostly uncovered within moments.

Kohta was hurt pretty bad. His left eye had a deep cut over it and Lucy could easily guess he had lost that eye. His left leg was pinned under a huge chunk of concrete close to the size of a city bus. Neither Lucy or Nana working together could budge it.

Nana sat down next to the groaning Kohta and began to cry. "What are we going to do?" she sobbed. "How are we going to get Kohta loose?"

Lucy knew they had no time to come up with a plan. She could hear explosions off in the direction of the highway and more F-22s flew overhead, firing their missiles into the surrounding buildings. She quickly used her vectors to slice Kohta's left leg off above the knee as cleanly as possible and began dragging him away from the debris. Nana and Mayu quickly rushed in to help carry him away.

"We need to get underground," said Lucy. "We passed a subway station about ten minutes ago. Lets get Kohta there, hurry." Working together they managed to get Kohta to the station and down the stairs. Lucy quickly dragged him into a restroom to keep him hidden. Once they were settled she began checking his wounds over. His eye seemed to be the worst. Luckily she had managed to cut his leg off cleanly enough that it was not bleeding.

"What are we going to do for Kohta?" asked Mayu. She was getting rather pale and shaky and Lucy could tell that she was beginning to loose it.

"Mayu, take Kanae and go find me two things; a flat piece of steel and some long strips of cloth," said Lucy without looking up from Kohta's leg. "Stay in the station and out of sight. Nana, we passed a liquor store up top. Go bring me back as many bottles of vodka as you can carry. It will be the clear liquid with white labels. Try to keep your mind closed."

Once they were gone Lucy gently stroked Kohta's brow. "How are you feeling, Kohta?"

"My eye hurts," moaned Kohta. "And my left foot feels kinda tingly, though it doesn't make sense, considering I don't have a left foot any more, do I?"

"I'm sorry about that, Kohta," said Lucy. "We didn't really have many more options though."

"You did what you had to, Lucy. That's what makes you a survivor."

Lucy smiled and brushed Kohta's hair from his brow. "Lay still. I have to go find a few things. I'll be back shortly."

Lucy quickly made her way through the subway station and found what she was looking for; a cigarette lighter, a purse strap, and an oxygen tank next to the body of a dead senior citizen. She returned to the bathroom and set her things outside the door. Lucy was able to get Kohta to hobble out just as Nana, Mayu, and Kanae returned with the things they were sent to fetch.

Lucy immediately began putting bandages over Kohta's bleeding eye. "Nana, go into the bathroom and pull the stall doors off their hinges. Bring them out here. And bring me some paper towels." Lucy folded the purse strap in half and cut it so the piece was only about three inches long. She used a loose string from her shirt to tightly bind the two halves together.

"What are you doing, Lucy?" Kohta asked.

"That stump is going to get infected if we leave it open," said Lucy. Since we have no way no make a skin graft, searing it is going to have to do." She set a couple of vodka bottles near Kohta's stump. "Some of this is going to have to be used to clean the wound. It's going to hurt like hell, but luckily I had Nana bring some anesthetic." Lucy set the remaining bottles near Kohta's elbow. "Start drinking."

It took fifteen minutes for Lucy to build a fire out of the bathroom stall doors and get it hot enough to sufficiently heat the steel. Luckily the oxygen tank helped with that. Lucy prayed the thing would not explode. A small tinkling sound behind her got her attention. The second vodka bottle Kohta had gone through clinked to the floor, spilling it's contents. Kohta tried to pick it up, and burst into a fit of giggles when he could not.

"Are your leg and eye still hurting Kohta? Can you feel anything at all?"

Kohta snorted through his nose and began giggling. "No, I'm sho drunk I can't even tink Lushey," he slurred.

"Good," said Lucy. "Nana, Mayu, I need you to sit on Kohta while I clean this." Lucy began pouring the vodka over his wound, using paper towels to mop up the blood and grease that had accumulated there.

"Ouch, that lit's a hurttle, Lushey" Kohta groaned.

Lucy held the piece of steel that Mayu had dragged over in the hottest part of the fire with her vectors. "Then this is going to hurt even more." Lucy handed the purse strap to Mayu. "Put this between his teeth and please, don't let him thrash about." Once the steel plate was glowing white hot, Lucy carefully placed it against the stump of Kohta's left leg.

"Nnnnnrrrrrrr!" Kohta cried out in pain as the hot steel seared his wound. He thrashed for only a moment before his eyes rolled back into his head and he passed out. Lucy tossed the plate to one side and began wrapping the stump in bandages. "Nana, I need to talk to you in private for a moment."

Once she was finished with Kohta's bandages, Nana obediently followed Lucy into the bathroom. "Nana, you know why the silpelits struck so hard here, don't you?"

"Because they know you are here," replied Nana. "They are trying to flush you out." An explosion, much closer than the little pops that had been going on for the last half hour, made the floor shake and caused some dust to fall from the ceiling.

"They will find me, sooner or later," said Lucy. "And when they do, you, Kohta, Mayu, and Kanae are as good as dead. That's why I have to leave Nana. They are going to take me to their queen, and maybe I can stop her. If I can kill her, I can regain control of the hive mind."

Nana sniffed once and nodded. "I always knew you would change your mind about humanity, Lucy. I always knew you would try to prevent something like this from happening."

"I don't give a damn about the human race," said Lucy, gruffly. "Kohta, Yuka, Mayu, and Kanae are the only humans I have ever cared about or will ever care about."

"Keep telling yourself that, Lucy. It may be true someday if you do."

Lucy turned to face Nana and just stared at her for a long moment, waging an internal war as the emotions she always fought so hard to suppress came bubbling to the surface. With a small sob she pulled Nana into a tight hug, something she had never done before. "I'm sorry for the pain I caused you so many years ago, Nana. And I'm sorry for the loss of your 'papa', he was good man in the end."

Nana was absolutely shocked at this behavior. Never once had Lucy shown any sign of affection toward her. Nana was not sure how to react. "Lucy..?"

Lucy gathered up her backpack and handed it to Nana. Nana opened it and found that Lucy had stored several wilderness survival manuals, books on knot tying, road maps, and guides to edible plants of North America along with the music box. "I bought all this knowing we may someday need it," said Lucy. "Be obedient to Kohta. He knows what my plans were and he will see all of you to safety." Nana just stood in shock as Lucy left her standing there in the bathroom. Once the door closed Nana began to weep.

Lucy walked over to where Mayu and Kanae were kneeling next to the still unconscious Kohta and quickly hugged both of them. "Take care of Kohta for me. He will not understand why I must leave. Both of you take care as well." Lucy gently leaned over Kohta and kissed his brow. "Goodbye, Kohta. Know that I loved you to the end." Wiping the tears from her dirt stained cheeks; Lucy made her way back up the station stairs and into the growing night.

…

Lucy stared in horror at the destruction that met her eyes. Most of the buildings that made up downtown L.A. were either toppled over or bombed down to a few stories. Cars were overturned everywhere and the streets were blasted to ruins from the bombs that had been dropped. There was at least on tank that had been overturned (Lucy wondered where the silpelits had got it from and how they got it there so quickly) and bodies were laying everywhere; a few silpelits but mostly humans. Fires were burning everywhere and oily smoke was blocking out the setting sun, turning the sky a sickly brownish-orange.

The hive mind was racing with the thoughts and experiences of the silpelits. They were learning quickly. Lucy could easily guess that when one had a success or made a mistake, they shared the experience with all. They knew how to operate quite a bit of military equipment, and they were still experimenting with everything they could get their hands on. The mind here in Los Angeles had also switched from _'kill the humans as fast as you can' _to _'eliminate the few survivors'_. Every human found and killed was being immediately reported to the rest of the hive mind. There weren't a lot of them being reported now.

Lucy ran as far from the subway station as her legs would carry her. She ran for a good half hour. Once she could not run any more, she sat down and sent a new message to the hive mind. _**You want me? Here I am!**_

It only took ten minutes for the first of the silpelits to find her. One struck Lucy across the back of the head and Lucy saw bright lights flash before her eyes before she slipped into unconsciousness.


	6. The Gods

When Lucy awoke she found herself tightly bound to a stretcher that a half-dozen silpelits were carrying along at a rapid pace. Just able to turn her head enough to see, Lucy tried to get a better view of her surroundings.

She was at a military base; that much was instantly obvious. The barracks, the tanks, the jeeps, the airplanes…all painted the matte green used by the army. There were dead soldiers everywhere, and there were nearly as many dead silpelits. Lucy guessed that they were the children of military personnel who lived on the base. While the cost in lives had been high, it afforded the silpelits great knowledge in the finer workings of the hardware the suddenly had available. Lucy was certain that the strikes had happened all around the world and the idea of a society of emotionally unstable six-year-old girls with nearly unlimited access to weapons made her shudder.

The silpelits wasted no time in hustling Lucy into a cargo plane and securely strapping her to an intricate makeshift frame work. Lucy could sense the anxiety of the silpelits who were making their way to the cockpit. Because a few of their sisters had figured out how to take off and fly a plane, they knew too, but none of them had figured out how to land without crashing yet. Their thoughts made Lucy sick to her stomach with worry.

As the turbines rumbled to life and the cargo plane began to move down the runway, one of the silpelits approached Lucy and jabbed a hypodermic syringe into Lucy's neck. Lucy felt a brief spark of pain followed by the blissful nothing of a deep sleep.

-:-:-

Kohta sat up and rubbed his throbbing skull. He wished he had stayed asleep because his left leg was hurting him almost as much as his aching head. He tasted bile in the back of his throat and swallowed to try to clear the taste. He picked up one of the vodka bottles he had emptied and shook his head. "Hair of the dog that bit me, huh?" he muttered in English before flinging the bottle away. He had no idea what that meant, he just knew it had to do with heavy drinking.

"Kohta, you're awake!" cried Mayu joyously. Kohta groaned and covered his ears. He was having one hell of a hangover.

"Oh, my head!" Kohta moaned. He looked around to make sure everyone was alright. He could not help but note that Kanae was just staring off into space. "Kanae, are you ok?" Kanae just nodded her head and pulled her knees up to her chest and resumed staring.

"We think she's still in a bit of a shock," said Nana. "She's been like that since Nyu…"

Kohta noticed that Nana's eyes were red and puffy, like she had been crying hard for quite a while. "Nana, where is Lucy?"

Fresh tears began running down Nana's cheeks. "Lucy surrendered herself to the silpelits to draw them away from us. Their queen is looking for Lucy, but Lucy does not know why. She showed me that they took her to a military base they overran and had loaded her into an airplane just before they drugged her. She's having nightmares now."

Kohta wished he hadn't heard that. "What is she thinking? Is she trying to get herself killed?"

"No, but she knows it's a strong possibility," replied Nana. "Lucy thinks that if she can kill the true queen she can regain control of the hive mind and stop them from exterminating us. But, she's also convinced that she is going to get herself killed in the process." Nana wiped her eyes. "She hopes that by selling herself as dearly as possible that she will save all our lives in the process."

Kohta tried to rise to his feet. "Then let's not waste any more time here. Oh man, how am I going to walk?"

Mayu handed Kohta a makeshift crutch that she and Nana had assembled from the handrails and seat covers of a subway car. Kohta gratefully accepted it and slung Lucy's backpack over his shoulder. "Lucy wanted us to head northeast. I'm not sure why, but I'm sure she was planning on something like this happening. We will travel by cover of darkness; we'll have less chance of being spotted that way. Nana, keep me informed on what the hive mind is doing, and let me know if Lucy wakes up."

With that, Kohta hopped on his leg up the subway stairs and into the night with his little group of refugees following close behind.

-:-:-

Persephone was elated at the news. Her sister had been captured and was on her way home. Persephone felt delighted to see her sister face to face, and in her joy decided to take a peek into the drug induced terrors that plagued Lucy's mind.

The images were nothing short of beautiful. Persephone felt her breath taken away as she saw two figures pleading with Lucy. The first was a girl in green boxer shorts and a white tank top (of all the ridiculous outfits) who was trying to get Lucy to wake up, to fight back against the power that held her captive and to save her family. The other was possibly the most exquisite thing Persephone ever saw; a nude figure with her face wrapped in bandages, save for one exposed eye. This figure whispered its wonderful message of death and destruction to Lucy. To Persephone's surprise, Lucy was trying to fight back against it.

Persephone could not understand. Why would Lucy resist her true nature? Perhaps she only needed a stronger voice to convince her how beautiful the world would be when everyone was dead. The deranged queen set off to find a fresh body and some bandages. After all, her sister should have a familiar face to greet her when she arrived.

-:-:-

Lucy awoke to the turbulence of the airplane. Her head swam with the after effects of whatever they had injected her with and Lucy still felt very groggy. Lucy tried to lift her arms and found that she had been stuffed into a straightjacket. Her nose itched like mad and she had to… Lucy scrunched her eyes shut and tried to shut out that urgent message her body was sending her. Noting her discomfort, the silpelits released her and allowed her access to the Head. As soon as Lucy was finished she was forced right back into the straightjacket.

Lucy streached out her mind to the hive and had to strain hard to listen in to the communications that spread faster and more efficiantly than the internet. The mindset of the entire world-wide hive was changing. Before it had been a frantic attempt to kill as many normal humans as they could before the humans had a chance to comprehend what was happening. It had worked exactly as the queen had planned. The world's population of silpelits had been placed with the precision of a master chess player, and had struck with deadly speed.

They had won their 'war' nearly within the first strike. Their first targets had been the militaries of their native lands and they had all but completely conquered them. It amazed Lucy how fast they had managed to do so. The hive mind afforded the diclonius a level of mass coordination that could not be matched by the human forces. The silpelits were no longer frantic in their drive to kill their targets; now they were calm, controlled, and systematic. The war had ended almost as soon as it had begun. All that was left for them to do was nothing more than a one sided slaughter.

It did not take too much longer to reach Kamakura (Lucy wondered just how long she had been out). The silpelits became frantic as they approached the city. Several of their sisters had attempted landings in commercial airliners and while none had executed a perfect landing, they had found creative ways to minimize the damage to the pilots and occupants.

The silpelit pilot of the cargo plane leveled out the plane at just a few feet above sea level roughly a quarter of a mile away from the beach. She gently lowered the plane to the ocean's surface and cut the engines. The silpelits all around Lucy used their vectors to brace her as the plane skipped like a stone across the sea, finally coming to a stop on the sandy beach. As soon as the plane stopped moving the silpelits immediately hustled Lucy out through the cargo doors.

Lucy was not prepared for the sight that met her eyes. Kamakura had been reduced to complete ruins. There wasn't a building standing in the entire city. Thick smoke blotted the sky and Lucy imagined she could see Kaede House reduced to a smoldering pile of cinders. She sent the horrid image to Nana. They had a right to know what had become of their home.

-:-:-

It was tough going what was left of the Los Angeles highways. When the silpelits overran the local Air Force base one of the first things they did was to blast all the highways to and from the city to rubble. What was left of the interstate around L.A. was choked with the burnt husks of cars and their passengers. The sour stench of roasted human meat filled the air and stung the lungs.

Nana halted as the group wove their way through the wrecked concrete and gasped. She had to lean against a wall of smoking rock to steady herself.

"What is it Nana," asked Kohta. "What did you see?"

"Lucy is awake," Nana gasped. She quickly described what Lucy had seen. Kohta shook his head in disbelief. "Come on, we can't stay here. We need to be as far away from human development as possible before sunrise."

-:-:-

Lucy put up no resistance as the silpelits dragged her through the research facility. Lucy had hoped that she would never have to set foot in its dreary halls again. This place held horrible memories that Lucy would just as soon forget. Lucy could not help but notice the blood spattering the walls, floor, and even the ceiling like a grotesque Jackson Pollok painting. Something terrible had happened here.

Lucy found herself being escorted into an enormous lush office that would have been rather pleasant if not for the fact that the windows were painted black and the lights were broken. The only light in the room were from multitudes of candles lining the walls, casting an eerie glow about the place. More than a dozen silpelits crowded around an enormous chair.

_**So, my prodigal sister has come home to me**_, a rather unpleasant voice spoke into Lucy's mind. _**I don't have a fatted calf to kill, but perhaps the humans who have caused you so much grief would be a suitable homecoming gift?**_

Lucy gasped as the group of silpelits surrounding the huge office chair parted and the chair spun around to face her. Lucy's legs buckled and she fell to the floor on her hands and knees. The figure was completely nude save for the bandages wrapped about her face that left her right eye exposed. It looked exactly like that dirty figure in the back of her mind that prompted her to evil, save that this figure was drenched head to foot in blood. The bandages dripped their dark contents onto the figure's torso. For possibly the first time in her life, Lucy felt fear; fear of an opponent who had until now been just a dark unpleasant shadow that hung over her soul. "No," Lucy croaked. "You can't be real. You are just that voice in the back of my head. You don't exist in real life!"

"Yet here I am, sitting right before you, Lucy," the figure chuckled hoarsely. "We may not share the same mind, but we share the same father, however abominable a man he was."

"Who are you?" asked Lucy, her voice cracking.

The figure in the chair stood up and approached Lucy; unwrapping her bandages as she came. The face that was hidden behind those bandages could have been Lucy's reflection in the mirror, except that her face was pinched and thin from malnourishment. "I am your half-sister, Persephone."

Lucy found her courage returning to her. This was not some dark extension of her personality come to life, but a twisted creature of flesh and bone. She slowly rose to her feet and stood facing Persephone. "How is this possible?"

Persephone telepathically implanted the knowledge she had gained into Lucy's head. Lucy saw her father's face, knew what he had become infamous for, and knew that Persephone was not lying. Lucy suddenly felt incurably filthy. She was the child of one of the most atrocious acts that one human being could perform on another. She opened her mind to Nana and showed her the knowledge she had just gained.

-:-:-

Nana gasped as the group continued moving east. "What is Lucy showing you now?" Kohta asked without halting.

"The queen that Lucy kept mentioning," said Nana. "She calls herself Persephone, and she's Lucy's half-sister! They were both the offspring of a serial rapist and two of his victims!"

Kohta shuddered and kept hobbling along. "Whatever Lucy's origins are, that does not make a difference in what she became. Come on, we need to keep moving."

-:-:-

"Who are you talking to, Lucy?" asked Persephone. "Is it one of your silpelits, perhaps the one that is still with that human you became so attached to? I saw so much in your dreams," added Persephone, noting Lucy's shock. "I tried opening my heart to a young man once too. He said he loved me and that he would never leave me. He lied! As soon as I became pregnant with his child he left me for another young woman he was seeing on the side. They cannot be trusted, Lucy." Persephone shook her head and sighed. "I suppose it is up to me to rescue you from yourself." Persephone closed her eyes and began sending out another message. _**Find the man who…**_

"No!" screamed Lucy. She whipped out one vector and bashed Persephone across the face, sending her flying into a wall. Persephone slid down it and lay still for a moment on the floor before picking herself back up.

"That…was the worst mistake you could have made, Lucy," growled Persephone. _**Back away**_, she commanded her silpelits, _**I'll deal with this one myself!**_ "Lucy, you disappoint me. I wondered for a time why haven't accomplished your divine work of eliminating the excrement called humanity from the face of this world, and now I can see why. They have weakened you. They have taken a goddess and bound her in the chains of _love_ of all things. How pathetic!"

Lucy was desperate to get Persephone to change her mind. As much as she knew that killing her would be the quickest way of saving Kohta, she had to try to save her sister. Lucy conjured up every positive memory of Kohta she could muster; the time they spent playing together as children, the care he had shown her when she was ill, the forgiveness, the compassion, the sense of family…all this Lucy shared with her half-sister in the hopes of sparking whatever shred of humanity Persephone had left in her.

She might as well have spat on a battleship for all the good it did. Persephone laughed at Lucy's efforts, laughed to punish the futility of such wasted effort, laughed at the ridiculous message of love that her sister had tried to share. "I never imagined such rubbish could spring from the mind of one who had so much potential." Persephone wiped the tears of mirth from her face, took a deep breath to compose herself, and regarded Lucy with a coldness that Lucy could not have thought capable in the face of another person. "Diclonius who refuse to fulfill their purpose are nothing more than trash to be disposed of. I will not say I'm sorry Lucy, because I'm going to enjoy ripping you apart!"

Lucy leapt away from the queen and grabbed one the silpelits. She hurled the little girl at Persephone in the hopes that Persephone would refuse to harm her own daughter. Persephone sliced the girl in half and rushed through the crimson spray at Lucy, flinging Kakuzawa's enormous desk at her. Lucy smashed the desk with her own vectors and met Persephone head on.

They swung wildly at each other with both fist and vector, bashing at tearing at one another. They were so close to being evenly matched that neither was gaining the upper hand. Lucy had tossed aside all self restraint and was trying to give as good as she got. After several minutes both combatants backed away; both bruised, bloody, and exhausted. Persephone moaned and collapsed into a sobbing heap near the few remaining lit candles.

"Why?" she sobbed. "Why can't I defeat my opponent? Why must everything I do come to such a worthless end?"

Lucy stepped closer, her anger fading. Perhaps now her sister would listen to reason. "It need not end this way, Persephone," said Lucy calmly. "The humans don't need to die for us to survive."

Persephone didn't say a word. Instead she slowly got to her hands and knees… and threw the candles at Lucy's face; she had been faking her distress. Lucy did not have time to react. The hot wax spattered onto her skin and Lucy desperately tried to wipe it off. With about of insane, shrieking laughter Persephone whipped out with her vectors and took Lucy's right leg off above the knee. As Lucy fell and tried to brace herself Persephone sliced off Lucy's hands above the wrist. Lucy rolled over in pain as Persephone stood over her, triumph shining in her face.

"She who hesitates is lost," Persephone jeered, waggling one finger in Lucy's face. She plunged one vector through Lucy's midsection and impaled her on it, spearing Lucy's internal organs and opening gaping holes on both sides of her body. Pain worse than anything Lucy experienced flooded through her body, and she knew she was about to die. "Love did not save your life," said Persephone with a sneer as she stood directly over Lucy's body, "and love will not save your human family once I have finished with you."

But Lucy still had one last trick up her sleeve, one last maneuver that she had insisted that Nana teach to her. Lucy plunged one vector into Persephone's frontal lobe and squeezed her pineal gland. Persephone was absolutely perplexed as her vectors were disabled. As she stared at Lucy in shock, Lucy reached out and twisted Persephone's head from her shoulders and watched her body fall to the floor. She felt her body growing weaker as her life leaked out of the gaping holes Persephone had left in her torso, arms, and leg. "She…who hesitates…is lost," she gasped at her sister's corpse before succumbing to a welcome oblivion.

Lucy had just enough strength to send Nana one last message before death took her. _**Kohta, I'm sorry.**_

-:-:-

Nana choked out a sob and fell on her face. It took several minutes for Kohta and Mayu to get her to stop weeping. Nana pulled herself into a sitting position and began rocking back and forth. "She's dead. Lucy killed the queen but got killed in the process. She's dead, Kohta! She's dead!" Mayu began crying as well.

Kohta sank to the ground next to Nana. He turned very pale and began to shake uncontrollably. After all that Lucy had done, after all the people she killed, after all the families she hurt, she had tried to finish cleanly. "What's happening to the hive mind now?" asked Kohta.

Nana sniffed and closed here eyes, trying to feel for what was happening. "Persephone's daughters, the younger queens, they are all scrambling to claim as much of the hive mind as possible." Nana wiped the tears from her face and gave Kohta a brave smile. "Most of the queens are completely concerned with trying to pull their hives together and stay alive. One or two are intent on finishing what Persephone started, but mostly they are just regrouping and deciding where to proceed from here. I think Lucy stopped the slaughter!"

"They're dividing the hive mind up?" asked Mayu.

"Yes," said Nana, "by geographical division. They are being sorted by natural barriers that separate the queens."

"Then I think Lucy managed to save us all," said Kohta. He looked around at their location. "I think this area is a good location to spend the day. We'll start moving again tomorrow night." He pulled himself upright and began hobbling a short distance away. "I need some time to myself right now," he said. "I won't go far."

Once he was out of sight of the others Kohta fell to the ground and curled up into a little ball. He curled his fingers into his fists so hard his nails broke the skin and began to sob. Nearly everyone he cared about; Yuka, Nyu, and now Lucy…they were all gone. Kohta just lay there for several hours, letting loose the grief and anguish that had been building up in the last thirty-six hours. When he was finally able to compose himself, he took a minute to think about what Nana had said. The more Kohta thought about it, the more certain he became that Lucy had only managed to delay the inevitable.

-:-:-

Once the hive mind became divided, the queens began to contend with one other, each trying to gain control of more silpelits than their siblings. They had not yet matured, and their spoiled, selfish, immature and emotionally frantic minds began beating against their sisters. The message was the same with each queen, and they repeated to one another over and over.

_**Everything in this earth is mine; mine to control and mine to keep. You can't have it. If I have to destroy your resources to keep you from having them, that is what I'll do. I no longer care if the humans live or die, as long as I am in charge. I can do whatever I want, and you can't stop me.**_


	7. The River Acheron

Everyone was silent as Kohta finished telling Lucy's story to the survivors. It was apparent that he was having some difficulty retelling it and nobody wanted to press him at the moment. "None of us have ever been the same since," said Kohta. He looked to Kanae with a sad expression. "Kanae has not spoken one word since she saw her mother get killed right in front of her eyes."

Judith Anderson nodded in sympathy. "So this Lucy really did turn out alright in the end?" she asked. "If she could lead a normal life, why can't these little queens you mentioned?"

"Because it took nearly every ounce of Lucy's willpower to keep from reverting back to her old self," said Kohta firmly. "I…I should not have glossed it over. Lucy often described to me how it was a daily struggle to keep her impulses under control." He looked to Nana apologetically. "You won't be offended if I tell them, will you?" he asked her in Japanese.

"If course not," replied Nana in the same language. "They have a right to know."

"All diclonius have some level of emotional or psychological instability," said Kohta. "Even Nana here, who is normally so kind and gentle, has had occasional lapses where reason flies away and the desire to end humanity comes bursting to the surface." He looked hard at Nana. "Didn't you say it took a bullet grazing the side of your head to bring you back to your senses when that soldier fellow convinced you that you that no one would ever accept you and that there was no place for you?"

Nana frowned and snorted in anger. "He wasn't a very nice person and I was stupid to think that we could help each other in destroying Lucy…I can't help but wonder whatever became of him though."

"And I can't help but think that there was really no point in Lucy going to confront their queen," Mayu said after a few moments. "After all, even if the younger queens are no longer actively trying to end humanity, we are still being killed off by their childish civil wars."

"Mayu is referring to what we saw in Las Vegas," said Nana. "It took nearly a year for us to walk to Vegas from LA. We hid out there for a few months until the hive from LA tried to expand their territory there. The Denver hive saw that as a challenge and took it upon themselves to make sure the LA hive had nothing there to exploit." Nana began going into detailed descriptions of how huge airplanes, loaded with explosives, flew out of the northeast and began dive-bombing into the buildings and streets, causing mass devastation. "There were perhaps forty other humans still alive in Las Vegas," continued Nana. "They refused to allow us to live with them because of me." Nana curled her knees up into her chest and scoffed. "Too bad for them. I felt them planning the strike hours before it actually happened. None of the Vegas survivors came out alive; they all died when the Denver hive bombed the place into dust. They have since destroyed the LA hive too."

Jim Anderson scratched his head and looked puzzled. "How do you know all this? I thought you were not tied to the hive minds?"

"I already told you before; I am not bound by the will of any queen," said Nana. "All I can do is tap into their information exchange. I know what they know, and they all know what the rest of the diclonius know." Nana trembled slightly and tears began running down her face. "Oh Lucy, Lucy; why did you have to try to stop them?" Nana muttered to herself. "Your intentions were good but you only made things worse."

"What are you talking about?" asked Jim.

"The fact that Lucy tried to keep the silpelits from killing their human predecessors for as long as she could," said Nana. "Your kind had no idea what that the diclonius, and more specifically their silpelit warriors, were meant to kill humans until it was too late. Sure, the people at that research lab knew, but they didn't tell anyone what to expect from the diclonius. Perhaps Lucy had allowed a few silpelits to kill, perhaps if the world had the chance to see us for what we really are, your kind would have found a way to save yourselves. Instead Lucy held off the attack and the hive mind was in the perfect position to strike when she lost control."

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions," concurred Jim. "So, it was orchestrated like a game of chess; position your pieces while making a few sacrifices, and strike hard when your opponent is in no position to stop you." Jim exhaled noisily through his nose. "So, Nana, what are the hive minds up to now, and what has happened in the last four years? I've gotten the impression from the start of this little story of your's that the three of you are hiding something big from us."

Nana looked to Kohta for some shred of inspiration. Fear was evident in her eyes. "Do I have to tell them, Kohta?"

"Yes," said Kohta, "tell them Nana. They have a right to know."

"Just after Persephone died, her direct offspring which were scattered across the world each claimed a population of silpelits. Being the emotionally unstable beings we are, and considering the level of aggressive competition between queens, war was inevitable. It is the instincts of a diclonius queen to eliminate her rivals, and they each tried doing just that. They used what technology they had available to try to destroy each other's hives, and they did not care what the costs in lives were. What we saw in Las Vegas is pretty typical of what has happened everywhere.

"This went on for roughly three years. The hives have mostly used up the last of their airplanes, cars, tanks, and other vehicles trying to destroy each other. Many of their targets were the manufacturing plants in other hive territories that made these vehicles. They no longer have the means to produce them. With most of the world's doctors dead, there has been no adequate medical care either.

"Six months ago, the queens finally began maturing enough that they now see their dilemma; they have no way of continuing their race without humans. But still they do not cooperate. The few hives that survived their war have been searching the wilderness and the ruins of the world's major cities looking for any survivors, but they do not share their resources. Every human that has been found so far produces silpelits. Many of the hives continue to dispose of these humans as they have no need for them."

Nana began shaking violently as she continued. "While the hives refuse to share their food, their humans, and their resources, they have had no qualms in sharing their knowledge with one another. The statistics are not good." Nana closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and began rattling of statistics. "They have estimated the remaining diclonius population to be perhaps nine-hundred-thousand. Eleven reproductive queens have survived their civil war. They have estimated the remaining human population to be less than three-thousand. There are most likely less than one-hundred humans not carrying the silpelit gene, and it is only a matter of time before they too are incapable of reproducing fertile offspring; that is, if the entire human race is not already infected." Nana curled up into a ball and began weeping into her knees. It was some time before she could compose herself enough to continue. The remaining statistics were almost to painful for her to repeat. "Both our races, human and diclonius, will be extinct in less than seventy years. The current generation is the last."

Judith Anderson turned pale and shook her head. "No, that's impossible. This cant' be true!"

"I'm afraid it is," said Nana. "With most of the world's population dead and technology blasted back to the invention of the brick there is no chance of fixing this problem." Nana sniffed and wiped her eyes. "The hives have accepted their inevitable fate and have stopped attempting to produce more queens. They are not trying to speed up the process like their mother was, but they are not trying to stop it either. They have become selfish and fatalistic in their attitude; 'we're all going to die soon anyways, so grab what you can and enjoy it before we all go the way of the dodo'."

Jim looked at his feet. He could not think of anything to say. "We're walking on the banks of the River Acheron," he muttered at last.

"What did you say?" asked Kohta.

"It's a reference to ancient Greek mythology," said Jim. "I may not have this completely correct, but according to the myth, four rivers encircled the underworld; I remember the River Styx, but I forget the other two. The Acheron was the last of the rivers to cross before one entered into the underworld." He shook his head and began laughing. "I'm sorry," he said after a few moments and quite a few angry looks. "But it was the first thing that popped into my head is that we are _all_ poised upon the banks of a raging river of death."

There was again silence for a few moments as Jim Anderson regarded Nana. "I think I owe you an apology," he said with a rather sheepish look in his face. "I…should not have judged you based on what you are. It was wrong of me."

"I'm sorry too," said Thomas. "The next time I point a gun at a stranger, someone give me a swift kick in the ass to bring me back to my senses."

"I accept your apologies," said Nana. "And I forgive you. You lost so much to my kind it was only natural to assume I was dangerous." Nana smiled and slowly approached the German shepherd dog with her hand outstretched. "Does this mean we can be friends too, Wyatt?" she asked. The hair on Wyatt's back stood straight up and he sent Nana scurrying back with a low, open-lipped snarl. "I guess that is a 'no'," said Nana.

Everyone had a chuckle at Nana's antics. It was amusing to see almost childlike behavior in a woman who looked to be almost forty.

"What will you do now, Kohta?" asked Jim. "Are you going to move on again, or are you planning on staying for a while?"

"I think perhaps I'll stay here," said Kohta. "I'm tired, Jim. My body and soul have been broken in this war. We've been running from one place to another four almost four years, and I've run just about as far as I care to." Kohta leaned back against a concrete slab and sighed. "I'm just so tired."

"So what to do all of us do now?" asked Rebecca Anderson. "Humanity, I mean. With no hope of our species continued survival, what is there to live for? What is the point of carrying on?"

"We carry on for each other," said Kohta firmly. "We carry on because we have all lost loved ones who would be ashamed to see us wallow in self pity. We carry one, so that we can enjoy what little time we have left in this world." Kohta sobbed slightly and a single tear fell from his one good eye. "Though, I do miss my wife, and I do miss Lucy. I loved them both, and now they are gone." He straightened up and wiped his cheek dry. "We are going to survive as individuals the best we can. It's just hard knowing it end's with us."

"Aye," said Jim. "But, it is going to be difficult to try to stay positive and not be depressed, knowing that we walk the banks of the River Acheron…"

_**Epilogue**_

_**50 years later**_

_The world has fallen silent. Should an observer who saw the Planet Earth from space eighty years ago pass by they would notice a conspicuous lack of lights from the shadows where night had fallen. A closer observation would reveal something else._

_Scattered across the world are the derelict ruins of a once proud people. But now their monuments to their achievements crumble with the passage of time. The eyes of those who once looked upon their works with a vain pretence of invincibility and immortality have turned to dust, reclaimed to the bosom of an earth who welcomes all of her children back to her equally. It was, in the end, the final thing in common between human beings and the diclonius. The body of a king is reclaimed by the soil in the exact same manor as the poorest pauper._

_All that humanity had done, all of their accomplishments and their successes, they were now just dust and echoes; the ghosts of challenges overcame and the strife of individuals as they tried to make the world a more pleasant and easier place for the next generation that would follow after themselves._

_But there would be no generations to follow, and all that mankind had done; every wonderful discovery, every war that had been fought, every people who became united, every government that had arisen and every family who had laughed and cried together; there would be none to remember what had happened, none to benefit from their struggles and triumphs._

_In the remaining libraries scattered across the earth, books sat rotting on the shelves as their pages decayed; for there would never again be eyes that could comprehend the meaning of their words. In the few museums that had escaped the destruction, paintings hung unviewed; for there would never again be minds to appreciate their aesthetic beauty. And in the ruins of one city, a human skeleton lay in the streets clutching at a music box. It was open, and its purple velvet lining had all but faded away under the bleaching glare of a sun that continued to shine on despite our absence. Yet the golden plaque on the inside of the lid was intact, and the word _Lilium_ was visible, if any were left who could understand it. The music box made no sound, played no solemn tune; such things require human hands to fix and to operate. No ear would ever again hear the solemn tune of that music box._

_The two races that were just another passing phase in a world that would soon forget they had ever been there, the two races that were convinced that the sun could not rise and set unless they were there make it so, the two races who had destroyed themselves in their haste to be master of everything they saw, human and diclonius; were truly, totally, completely, and permanently…gone._

End

-:-:-

**Bonus Material**

These are the events as followed. The time given is the amount of time that passed after the end of the anime.

3 months: The new diclonius queen dubbed Persephone is found in a maternity ward sweep and imprisoned at the research facility

5 months: Arakawa manages to artificially replicate the virus. Director Kakuzawa begins running tests on his own staff without their knowledge.

6 months: Kohta and Yuka get married. They move to Tokyo but Nana and Mayu stay at the Maple Inn with Lucy. Under Lucy's leadership the Maple Inn reopens for business.

1 year, 2 months: The first of Kakuzawa's staff begin giving birth. The resulting offspring are all silpelits. He orders that a number of controlled reproduction experiments take place based on eggs harvested from his queen. He orders that a number of women be found who can serve as surrogate wombs for the artificially fertilized embryos. His agents round up women from forced prostitution rings from the Philippines, Taiwan, and China. He uses Arakawa as his first test womb. Against the advisement of Arakawa, Kakuzawa launches project "Pandora's Box" and his agents begin introducing the artificial diclonius virus to just about any source of possible contamination they can think of.

1 year, 5 months: Kohta and Yuka give birth to their first daughter, whom they name Kanae.

2 years: The women enslaved as surrogate wombs at Kakuzawa's research facility begin giving birth. For reasons they do not understand test group A (carrying embryos sired by a father not infected with the virus) either has frequent miscarriages or give birth to watered down queen while test group B (carrying embryos sired by fathers who were infected with the virus) all give birth to full queens, all female.

4 years: Kohta and Yuka have their second child, a silpelit they name Nyu.

6 years: Only 1 in 100,000,000 births is producing a human child and the human populace is heading toward massive genetic destabilization.

8 years: A worldwide state of emergency is declared. Desperately the various governments around the world attempt to round of the rising generation if silpelits. Japan seems to be getting hit the worst. Kohta, Yuka, their children, Nana, Lucy, and Mayu flee to the United States.

8 years, 3 months: It is discovered that the current strain of diclonius are incapable of producing males. Director Kakuzawa is tricked into releasing Persephone. She takes command of the world population of silpelits who rise up and begin slaughtering the last human generation. Yuka is killed in this strike by her own daughter, Nyu. The massive diclonius army learns how to operate military technology through trial and error and shares the information with the rest of the race. Many die in the learning curve, but their deaths are seen by the hive mind as being part of the greater good. Lucy is taken back to Japan where she kills Persephone. The few remaining queens divide up the hive mind. Kohta and the remaining members of his family flee northeast.

8 years, 4 months: The diclonius hives; each ruled by an immature tyrant queen (all the offspring of Persephone) wage wars in their childish tantrums. Technology is blasted back to the Iron Age. They kill each other off at a rapid pace.

11 years, 6 months: The hives begin a desperate bid to round up as many humans as possible in the hopes that there is someone out there who knows enough about genetic engineering to find a way to save their race from extinction. By doing so, they spread the numbers of the last few "pure humans" even thinner. Some hives try to preserve them and use them for breeding stock in the hopes that they can have a few more humans to serve as sires for their young queens, but most simply terminate the humans they have no use for.

12 years: Kohta and his family arrive in Salt Lace City, Utah. Kohta relates the events leading up the demise of the human race to a small band of survivors they meet there.

62 Years: The last of the human and diclonius survivors die of old age. Both races are totally extinct.


End file.
